Ash Faraji, an apprentice, will go on to compete in national finals later this year
From left: Steve Ellison, Guild Judge; Phil Hodgkinson, Yorkshire Guild secretary; Ash Faraji, junior winner; Mike Kelliher, president of the Guild of Bricklayers; Paul Briggs, vice president of the Guild and Nick Donkin, Yorkshire chairman of the Guild.(Image: Kevin Davison of OTE)
Two budding bricklayers from the region have proven their skills against peers with a solid set of results in a recent competition. Teenagers Ash Faraji and Amelia Kokosa have placed first and second respectively in the junior section of the Guild of Bricklayers Yorkshire Regional heat.
The pair are both studying at Hull’s OTE Construction Training – an organisation that gives city youngsters who have otherwise had difficulties in education a chance to learn key trade skills such as joinery, plastering, groundworks and bricklaying. Starting at aged 14, the organisation exposes them to skills intended to set them up for life – with many former trainees having gone on to run businesses that now employ those most recently through OTE’s doors.
Kevin Davison, a director at OTE, said: “The whole ethos of the company is that if you give a young person the right tools to do a job, they’ll be able to do it. We take them in from 14 and then run a pre-apprenticeship programme from when they leave school, and then apprenticeship programmes on top of that.”
OTE takes on youngsters that other colleges may not, giving them a leg up. Kevin added: “We’ve gone full cycle from kids who joined us at 14 and are now employers.”
This year, OTE hosted the Yorkshire regional at of the Guild of Bricklayers competition at its New Cleveland Street premises. Materials were supplied by local sponsors and brickies from across Yorkshire and Humber showed off their skills with judges awarding on quality of work to the millimetre.
OTE entered people at every level of the competition including the junior, female and senior categories. The provider triumphed in two of those categories thanks to Ash and Amelia, with the centre’s Louis Stones also taking the New to Competition title and school student Archie O’Malley picking up third place in the same category.
Amelia, also came second in the junior category, in what was almost a clean sweep for the OTE team. In the senior category, Beal Homes’ William Stanley – also a student of OTE – placed second.
Kevin added: “Out of the seven competitors Ash really stood out. He won it by a long way. And for Amelia to come second in what was mainly a male competition is fantastic. She was also head and shoulders above the rest in the female competition.”
Ash, who is an apprentice with Paul Hannan at Hannan Brickwork, will now go on to compete in the national finals in Leeds. Kevin said the youngster had been “working his socks off” and will have the backing of the OTE team in June.
Trainees at OTE do at least 15 weeks of experience before they start apprenticeships – giving them a head start. The firm also tries to match trainees with employers.
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