LCB Invests in New Rigs as 2022 Roofing Successes are Celebrated

LEEDS COLLEGE of Building (LCB) Roofing Department has “significantly invested” in its apprentice training by replacing all the roofing rigs in its workshop area at a cost of £40,000.

New Roofing Rigs

The roofing rigs were rebuilt over the summer period, in readiness for the new intake of roofing apprentices starting their courses this September.

The new intake will join a total of over 100 roofing apprentices currently training at the college’s South Bank campus on Cudbear Street, Leeds.

The college donated the original rigs to two training centres that are intending to start new roofing training provision in their areas. The first training provider to benefit from the donations was Simian Risk which plans to add pitched roof training to its current flat roofing courses in London and Warrington.

Additionally, Optimum Skills, based in Gateshead, was delighted to receive roofing rigs for its new course announced earlier this year and starting this autumn.

Lee Bogg, Curriculum Manager in the Faculty of Construction Crafts at LCB said, “We are more than happy to help the growth of roofing training across the country.

“The donations also helped us to reduce our carbon footprint and work sustainably, ensuring that we didn’t dispose of the rigs into waste and that they were recycled for future use.

“The renewed roofing rigs shows how our roofing provision is going from strength to strength, so much so that we are now bolstering our team by recruiting another full time roofing tutor to support our delivery aims.”

Lee added that the new roofing tutor will join the highly experienced roofing team of Dave Mallory and Dale Yates, replacing Chris Messenger who is moving into delivering Roofing Apprenticeship Standard end point assessments.

SkillBuild 2022

Leeds College of Building roofing department has additional reasons to celebrate having recently had great success in the regional SkillBuild competition heats, with three LCB students progressing to the national finals.

LCB competed in the regional contests for SkillBuild 2022, in the Roof Slating & Tiling category, which consisted of approximately 54 competitors competing in eight venues across the country.

Lee Bogg said, “Here at LCB we are extremely proud that all three of our competitors have done extremely well and have now been asked to compete in the national SkillBuild finals in Edinburgh, in the week starting 14 November 2022.

This year’s competitors from LCB are:

• Kyran Sharlotte
• Aeron Murray
• Joshua Easton

LCB 2022 Roofing Student of the Year

Slate producer, CUPA PIZARRAS is continuing its support of LCB roofing apprentices, not only donating materials to the college, but also sponsoring LCB’s Roofing Student of the Year award, which this year was presented to Bradley Fox.

Bradley Fox was highly commended by his tutor, Chris Messenger, who judged Bradley’s work as outstanding in both practical and theory sessions. Bradley also found time to peer mentor other students, setting a fantastic example to his group, Chris said.

Chris further commented that he is certain that Bradley will evolve into an outstanding tradesperson and that “he will do the industry proud”.

CUPA PIZARRAS 2022 Quarry Trip

Also this year, two LCB roofing students, Jamie Scott and Ricky Burns, will be visiting the CUPA PIZARRAS quarries in an all-expenses paid trip to northern Spain.

The roofing apprentices will get to see first-hand the roof slate production process, from its first extraction from the quarry, to its cutting and packing ready for use on European roofs.

The two students who are making the trip were selected on their merit and are both are very excited at the prospect of the trip.

CUPA PIZZARAS’s well-established programme of supporting the UK roofing industry extends nationwide and allows several of the roofing colleges’ students to take part in educational trips to their quarries each year.

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