From 7th May to 29th July, young trainee roofers will be putting their skills to the test to secure a place at the final of the UK’s largest, multi-trade competition this coming November.
SkillBuild is a national competition which takes place annually to promote excellence amongst the UK’s young crafts persons across ten craft occupations of which roofing is one of them. For a number of years roofing has been proudly supported and run by the National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC).
In order to reach the final, the 49 young roofers need to score highly at one of the seven regional heats for slating and tiling taking place around the country. This year the heats are taking place on:
May 7th – Newcastle College
May 29th – Bolton College
June 5th – Leeds College of Building
June 16th – South Lanarkshire College
June 17th – Angus College (Arbroath)
July 28th – NCC Birmingham (King’s Norton)
July 29th – Cornwall College (St Austell)
Competitors will have a maximum of six hours to install underlay, battens and natural slates to a roofing rig. Achieving high marks is difficult as they will have to work to tight tolerances as set out by the stringent marking scheme devised by NFRC. Throughout the six hours, their work will be overseen by an independent judge, who will be checking their accuracy and adherence to the rig plans and drawings and of course, very importantly, that they are also adhering to health and safety regulations by working safely and maintaining a tidy work area.
Of course, the heats would not be taking place without the materials, and this is where the support of the NFRC Supplier Members come in, who offer assistance in not only providing the materials at no charge but also assisting with the logistics to make sure that they arrive on site on time. This year, a huge thank you goes to SIG Roofing who are providing the 7,000 natural slates, the 210kg of nails, and 50m of underlay and to SR Timber for supplying the 1,750lm of timber battens.
NFRC wishes all the competitors the very best of luck and look forward to announcing the finalists this summer.
For more information about SkillBuild, head to www.citb.co.uk.
