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The biggest event in the apprenticeships and skills calendar takes place this month, with National Apprenticeship Week’s celebration of the value trainees bring to the workplace.

‘Skills for Life’ is the theme of this year’s programme, which takes place nationwide from February 10^th to 16^th. The Department for Education initiative is an opportunity for youngsters to engage with potential employers and senior representatives from various industries via a host of live online events. These include a webinar focused on construction, engineering and the built environment which invites apprentices to ‘Shape the Future’.

With BriggsAmasco a long-time provider of apprenticeship programmes which offer recognised industry qualifications, the company is a keen advocate of the Department for Education’s annual campaign.

Tony Lawther, Managing Director at BriggsAmasco, who started out as a BriggsAmasco apprentice in 1984 said: “We fully support National Apprenticeship Week. The construction industry, and roofing in particular, is in urgent need of recruits as people leave or retire from the sector. Roofing offers a fantastic career opportunity, it’s a highly skilled trade that offers long-term career prospects, competitive wages, and the satisfaction of seeing tangible results from hard work.

Over the years we’ve employed many apprentices who have become qualified roofers and reached the top of their profession. Therefore, we are fully aware of the value trainees bring to the business and why we’ll always support their development.”

BriggsAmasco has a decades-long track record of employing apprentices and facilitating their career progression.

BriggsAmasco’s notability for delivering training programmes that exceed those typically offered by construction companies is evidenced by its encouragement and support of all employees’ to attain a NVQ Level 7 – the equivalent of a Master’s degree. This is essential to an individual’s long-term career prospects whilst contributing to improving on-site standards and build quality. 

BriggsAmasco currently employs 18 apprentices, including more experienced staff such as Paul Mulgrew, who joined the company in 2002. Paul, 43, decided to upgrade his skillset and enrolled as a mastic asphalter apprentice. The move has earned praise from BriggsAmasco’s Senior Management.

Tony said: “Paul’s monthly update reports from Managers and Supervisors are very good and his enthusiasm never goes unnoticed. He’s excelled during his time at college, which is great to hear when he is surrounded by much younger apprentices. Paul is an exemplar of how we support employees who want to improve and progress regardless of age. He is thriving and dedicated to making the most of his career.”

For more information on National Apprenticeship Week and the live online events, visit https://nationalapprenticeshipweek.co.uk/

The government and training associations nationwide seem to agree that the UK’s flat roofing industry needs to invest more in apprenticeships to address the current labour shortage. Recent statistics justify their unity on the matter. Published in 2023 by UK construction market analyst, Glenigan, the ‘State of the Industry’ highlighted how the skills shortage impacted the building sector. In terms of flat roofing, 22% of firms surveyed reported a shortfall in built-up felters, with 16% and 12% of companies revealing a shortage of single-ply installers, and liquid-applied roofers respectively.

The seriousness of roofing’s personnel shortage was further highlighted in a study by IronmongeryDirect. It revealed roofers had the longest waiting times – due to a shortage of skilled operatives – following a survey of UK workers of the most in-demand trades. On average, it was found customers faced a nine-week wait to employ a roofer, compared to five weeks for the services of a carpenter, builder or electrician.

Training is something I’m very passionate about having spent four years as an apprentice flat roofer as part of my industry induction. Since then, as a tradesperson, I’d estimate I’ve trained about 30 apprentices during my time ‘on the tools’. The outcome for each trainee was largely tied to their employer’s aspirations. Successful candidates mostly worked for businesses that saw them as the industry’s future. For the not-so successful trainees, their training experience was limited by their employees’ need for part-trained cheap labour.

As branch manager for a leading commercial roofing contractor and in a position of some influence, I can now see the challenges at play in instigating training programmes that are crucial to creating a profitable and sustainable flat roofing industry. I’m of the belief that greater togetherness between sector stakeholders is essential to this outcome.

Long-Term Training Benefits Stifled by Short-Term Profit Gains

In my seven years at BriggsAmasco, I’ve experienced first-hand how apprentices nationwide are provided with excellent development opportunities. The company’s training programme is expertly devised and long-established but we continue to strive to improve and focus our offering for trainees in the appropriate areas. At BriggsAmaco, there’s a belief system in place to ensure flat roofing apprentices have the resources and ‘live environment’ experiences to reach the very top of their profession.

Unfortunately, the training we provide is an exception to the industry norm. There just aren’t enough apprentices coming through the contractor ranks. Too many companies are driven by a culture of short-termism, meaning they would rather employ cheap, unskilled labour than invest time and money nurturing untapped talent.

The short-termism culture has wider-reaching consequences. The tendering of government and private building contracts, for example, is often decided solely on cost. In such cases, companies that invest their time, money and effort in industry-recognised training schemes are significantly disadvantaged. Their need to achieve higher profit margins due to their trainee commitments invariably prices them out of government tenders, despite them doing the right thing by investing in development programmes that will ultimately benefit the industry’s push for more skilled labour.

Tender Rewards for Trainee Investment?

Companies are not legislated to invest in training and apprenticeships. So, perhaps government incentives are the answer to the roofing skills shortage. In respect of the tendering process, could contract awards favour companies that have committed a higher percentage of profits to in-house apprentice training schemes? This would not only encourage more contractors to start traineeships of their own, it would ease the poaching issue. 

For too long, too many companies – not minded to invest in their own apprentice schemes – have simply snapped up the services of trainees recently qualified elsewhere. In such instances, the lure of more money, rather than improved career opportunities, is the pull. Thus is the way of the world, but it does seem a little imbalanced that one contractor profits from another’s years of trainee investment and development.

BriggsAmasco invests heavily to develop our employees’ and sub-contractors’ roofing knowledge and skills via a range of accredited learning programmes that lead to a recognised industry qualification. Eight of our apprentices achieved an NVQ or SVQ qualification in 2023, which is essential to meeting our core performance values: safety, competency and quality.

Aside from extremely valuable benefits in terms of personal development and day-to-day workplace performance, investing in traineeships can boost employers in ways they might not expect. Young recruits bring a new dynamic to the workplace. They can also bring new ideas that act as a re-energising force for older, more experienced colleagues. That’s why more companies should be minded to invest in traineeships. Motivated personnel are a pathway to business success, and a well-constructed learning programme is ideal for ensuring new arrivals feel inspired, supported and valued.  

Now is the time to separate business rivalries and focus on facing the ever-increasing skills shortage – an issue that negatively impacts the roofing industry in so many ways. There is a golden opportunity to train for a profession that is valued the world over, offers excellent financial reward, personal fulfilment, a lifetime of amazing experiences and lifelong friendships.

It needs shouting from the rooftops – this is a career worth training for. Therefore, the means must be provided to make it happen.

By Allan Doris, BriggsAmasco Glasgow Branch Manager

BriggsAmasco has triumphed at this year’s NFRC Scottish Roofing Contractor of the Year Awards. Its teams’ outstanding delivery of a challenging waterproofing programme as part of the Central Quay residential development in Glasgow earned victory in the ‘Multi-Discipline Project over £250,000’ category.

BriggsAmasco’s success was announced at an NFRC finalists’ event held at The Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow awards on Friday 25^th October. A record 270 contractors, suppliers and merchants from across the Scottish region attended the event, which was hosted by TV and radio personality Tam Cowan.

Tony Lawther, Managing Director at BriggsAmasco said: “What a fantastic achievement. The NFRC Scottish Roofing Contractor of the Year Awards are incredibly well-regarded throughout the industry. To come out on top in a hotly contested roofing category is a real badge of honour for our waterproofing teams and the company as a whole.” 

The Central Quay programme comprised 35 roof areas across four steepling tower blocks totalling 3,323m². The huge area was waterproofed by BriggsAmasco using the skillset of five different flat roofing activities: Bauder Bakor Hotmelt; Bauder Thermofol single-ply; Bauder Liquide, Bauder BTRS built-up felt roofing, and IKO Permascreed mastic asphalt levelling screed. It also included paving slab and ballast roof landscaping finishes, as well as a large podium deck 1870m² over an underground car park.

Delivered to the highest standard with a zero-defect sign-off, the Central Quay project further showcased BriggsAmasco teams’ ability to overcome waterproof detail challenges and deliver a range of perfectly executed solutions using mastic asphalt.

Tony Lawther continued: “I can’t speak highly enough of the incredible work carried out at Central Quay, one of the city’s newest and largest housing developments. Congratulations to all BriggsAmasco teams involved in the project.”

A landmark London regeneration project, which enlisted BriggsAmasco’s waterproofing skills as part of a multiple-application roofing programme, has won a coveted RIBA award.

Phase Two of the multimillion-pound Battersea Power Station restoration was announced winner of the 2024 RIBA London Conservation award. BriggsAmasco installed 45,000m² of waterproofing and insulation for the project – one of the largest urban regenerations of its type in Europe – to help transform the once derelict power station into a vibrant mixed-use development containing more than 250 residential apartments, 100 new retail, food and drink outlets, a 2,000-capacity events venue and 500,000ft² of new office space. 

In summarising the success of the ‘deeply impressive’ 220,000m² Battersea Power Station project, RIBA judges highlighted architect Wilkinson Eyre’s creative use of roof space at the site’s residential area. It included garden terraces as part of a shared, biodiverse multiple installation carried out by BriggsAmasco.

Tony Lawther, Manager Director at BriggsAmasco said: “It’s fantastic to have played a part in a project that’s the recipient of a RIBA award. The Battersea Power Station regeneration is certainly one of the biggest, most high-profile developments we’ve been involved with. The waterproofing aspect’s completion to such a high standard is testament to the experience, skills and commitment of our installation teams. They should take particular pride that RIBA has deemed the project worthy of a Conservation award.”

Up to 70 full-time BriggsAmasco operatives, ranging from a specialist mastic asphalt installation team to a host of designers and project planners, were assigned to the Battersea Power Station project. Teams installed sedum green roofs using IKO enertherm inverted insulation to create the biodiverse garden terraces, with RIBA judges praising the ‘elevated city square’ aesthetic it created. 

BriggsAmasco waterproofing expertise and IKO’s high-performance mastic asphalt product range also combined to deliver smart, watertight protection to the power station’s main energy centre and its iconic white chimneys.

Tony continued: “Our close working relationship with IKO was key to the successful design and delivery of waterproofing applications across the Battersea Power Station site. Therefore, IKO deserve huge credit for their contribution to this award-winning project.”

For more information about the award please click here.

Our branch manager Allan Doris from our Glasgow branch has spoken with Housebuilder & Developer about “Lack of building tolerance knowledge could undermine drive for passivhaus standard homes”.

You can read the full article here.

Tony Lawther (Managing Director) has spoken to RCI Magazine, about the Building Safety Act, covering the new systems; Building Control; Competence; Gateways; Golden Thread of Information; Mandatory and Voluntary Occurrence Reporting.

Read the full article in RCI’s Magazine July 2024 issue.