NRL News reported this month on a new development in its scheme to support NRL players with genuine career options after football. Eden Brae Homes, already a strong advocate of continued learning and development for its team through its Pathways Program”, has now become a driving force in making the project of the NRL come to life.
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ABBTF and Pivotal Labour Hire & Training have joined forces to provide bricklayer recognition qualifications and awareness training for ten Zimbabwean 457 Visa Bricklayers helping them establish a new life in Sydney. Work has been organized for the group and they start later this week. Each member of the group is on a two-year work Visa with the opportunity to achieve permanent residency on completion.
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Tragically last week another death occurred in Sydney with a brick wall collapse, involving strong wind and a second serious accident occurred about 20 km from the first, also related to the weather. It was July last year when again strong winds were involved in the death of another bricklayer. Around the country we always have the potential for severe and erratic weather patterns which can be a real danger to bricklayers and other workers on building sites.
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You never know when you’re going to be put to the test: To have to decide to take responsibility and be accountable in an unpredictable but clearly life-endangered situation needing fast action.
As our apprenticeships industry body, ABBTF is very proud of 17 year old, second year bricklaying apprentice Kyuss Smith, of Gary Pollack Bricklaying, Orange NSW, for stepping up and acting when he did on April 21. He saved a life through his quick thinking and speed when another tradie fell down, and as Kyuss explains was ‘fitting and frothing at the mouth and his eyes rolling back in his head’.
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HIA’s NSW Executive Director, David Bare, recently called for greater effort in promoting and developing career choices in the trades to grow the future construction skill base. In the NSW e-NEWS, Mr Bare said “The focus is too heavily weighted toward gaining a professional qualification at university with few job opportunities at the end of it. If the Government of NSW is serious about maintaining housing supply as the key weapon to fight affordability, it must also acknowledge that developing the workforce to support it is crucial.
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Jens-Peter Vestergaard is a great example of how hard work and commitment to the opportunities presented by WorldSkills, can take a young bricklaying apprentice anywhere.
Two years ago Jens-Peter won the Danish National Bricklaying competition in Copenhagen and went on to win Silver last year in the international competition in Sao Paulo, alongside Australian Sam Spong who brought home Bronze.
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HIA has last week reported that New South Wales has widened its lead over Victoria in the latest HIA Housing Scorecard report. The HIA Housing Scorecard ranks each of the eight states and territories based on the performance of their housing markets.
“The large states dominate the top rankings in the latest HIA Housing Scorecard, with NSW extending its lead in first place thanks to a remarkable performance on the detached house side,” explained HIA Senior Economist, Shane Garrett.
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They are all involved in bricklayer training. Bronson, a St George Illawarra Dragon and Australian Apprenticeships Ambassador, employs two apprentice bricklayers together with his bricklayer brother Cheyne in their construction business.
It’s great to hear of a top sportsman with a plan for life beyond NRL and one prepared to share it with others. Bronson was previously also an Apprentice Mentor in the NRL’s Trade UP program.
The bricklaying and building industry generally is set to benefit from an announcement late last week for a plan that will deliver more jobs and more housing as part of the first of several fund injections under the ‘City Deal for NSW’ investment partnership, between the NSW and Australian governments.
Western Sydney leads off with all cities in NSW to roll out investment plans from this partnership. The plan aims to make the state’s cities, metropolitan and regional, more liveable for the communities and businesses that they serve.
A group of Year 9 and 10 students at UC High School Kaleen completed a Brick & Blocklaying 3 day construction course held earlier this month, building two worm farms which will complement the School’s wide curriculum. The Step Out Program is an introductory bricklaying course conducted by the Australian Brick and Block Training Foundation (ABBTF) designed to open the eyes of students to the trade and the construction industry, to consider the possibility of obtaining qualifications and employment in the industry in the future.
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