🏗️ Teaching Construction in Further Education 🧑‍🎓

Welcome to the UK Construction Podcast hosted by the team from the UK Construction Blog! 

Ever wondered where your construction skills could take you beyond the job site? 

In this episode, we talk to John Ryan, a skilled bricklayer who took his on-site experience to the classroom as a trainer in Further Education. 

He shares his inspiring journey, challenges faced and why he believes it’s important to train the next wave of tradespeople, now more than ever. 

If you’ve spent years working on-site and are wondering what opportunities lie beyond, Ryan’s journey might just inspire your next move.

Topics covered:

✔️ The path from bricklaying to teaching
✔️ Skills every aspiring bricklayer needs
✔️ Common misconceptions about working in construction
✔️ The future of trades and why they matter
✔️ Advice for anyone considering a career in construction

For further information check out: https://www.teachinfurthereducation.education.gov.uk/

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Transcript

Teaching Construction in Further Education

So you've been working for 10 years, I understand as a brick layer. I started as a youngster, as a brick layer. Won't going to old. I was, 'cause it's probably illegal. Chopped and changed a few times in my later life. And I think I've been in teaching probably best part 16, 17 years now.

Oh, wow. Okay. A long time. Yeah. So I, within that, I I sometimes go back to industry to keep up my, what was called CPD, my continual professional development. So I'm still fresh. Yeah. And is it bricklaying in your specialty? Bricklaying , yeah. By trade I have, I do and have taught groundworks to a certain extent.

Okay. Mainly brick laying and. Yeah, I did some voluntary teaching for the Royal Welsh Army Cadets back in Cardiff, and I did some teaching for the Royal Marines in Western Super Mare. Awesome. Yeah. And I understand you've done all of this with some TaeKwonDo. On the side in your evenings? Yeah. Many years ago when I was a younger man, much fitter.

Yeah. I I used to, I was participating under a master and I was going through the ranks and learning, and I ended up having my own small club. That's where I, alongside working on site, working places, doing other stuff. That's where I learned how to start off, like, why? This is, I'm quite good at teaching.

Yeah, because any martial art that you, you tend to do an unwritten apprenticeship as you go through the ranks anyway. My partner at the time, she used to come and watch us and she did say, you've got quite a knack for this teaching. So I took it from there. Have you found this been a benefit to your the further education teaching or the training?

Oh, absolutely. Because of the vocational in FE that I deal with bricklaying ground Works or mainly bricklaying. It's more of a practical. Aesthetic learner type of watch and learn and do hands on. And that's the way I learned to do stuff and I passed that onto my learners and that's the way they thrive and go through which, whichever qualification they're doing, where it happens to be.

Yeah. Has help. Definitely. Yeah. And so you, you've had a long time with hands-on experience on the building sites and stuff. What would you say the most kind of valuable real world knowledge you've brought into the classroom is from all that real world experience?

It's exactly that. It is the experience being a bricklayer for so many years. Traveled the country with brick lane, bringing that in into fe. You have your knowledge skills, stories to go along. Everybody loves a story. And that fits in well with the way that you teach in fe. It's not like a school teacher.

It's very different. FE is very different. It's more of an adult approach. And like I say, ask any brick bricklayer. They've got stories. Everyone loves a story. 'cause you can relate things to the curriculum through a story, through experience. Absolutely. I think they're story, it just helps. Helps people grasp concepts.

Yeah. Add some reality into it and everything. Exactly that. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And have there been any any big surprises since getting into afe? Few stories. Learners will be learners without getting too much into it, everyone is different and dealing with different personalities at first was a big struggle because you have to remember, they're not adults.

They are young people, they're learners. Sure. So that, that was a kind of a surprise to me is that why can't you understand this straight away? What, you learn yourself to learn to how to deal with that and put that across better with stories and, stuff like that.

Yeah. Yeah. It's not just that another surprise was your own learning journey, gaining qualifications to teach in fe. Assessing as well and other stuff that bolts on top of that to make you a better teacher, which also helps you in turn to be able to deliver better fe lessons and regale experience and it's just a big ball and it works really well together.

Yeah, awesome. Must be a very rewarding career, I imagine, helping out with the masters and Absolutely. Because look, the old outage you see these new learners, boys and girls on their first day. They dunno what to expect. They know they wanna lay bricks. Yay. It's Lego, I'm afraid it's not. Unfortunately.

And over the weeks you can see 'em progressing from this scared rabbit phase of right. This is a trial. Don't be scared of it. Right through to the end of their first year, say their diploma or their first year in an apprenticeship. They've gone on this massive journey compacted into an academic year of learning.

This is a troll, this is a string line to having masses of confidence to be able to go off and build a particular model. You set them and to have a good standard of work ready for workplace. Yeah. Awesome. And so is it typically a one year course then? Like I say, it depends. They can do a level one diploma and then carry on to do a level two, two diploma.

They might wanna go onto a level three craft. They might go sideways, do apprenticeship, which again is two years. It depends if they're in FE full time or if they're just apprentice. Yeah. Have there been any like real standout moments with any. Students who have particularly clicked with the trade. Quite a lot of people, like I said, they come in thinking it's, there's an old saying it's one on top of two, which it is effectively, but it's not in reality.

And they just come in thinking it's one on top of the two and they take naturally to it. And you can tend to see straight away. Who has massive skill potential, they might have the skill potential, so a lot of them do. But the academic side, the theory side of it might slow 'em down. But you do find that people who want to do this in will I.

Succeed. Yeah. When you shoot behind them as well. Oh, absolutely. And now a quick word from our sponsor, web Motion Media. Are you ready to transform your online presence at Web Motion Media? We are not just another digital agency, we're your partner in digital success. Our expert team delivers results driven SEO that puts you at the top of search [00:06:00] rankings, stunning web designs that convert visitors into customers and data backed PPC campaigns that maximize your ROI plus, our conversion rate optimization ensures every visitor counts.

Don't just take our word for it. Our clients see an average of 40% increase in online revenue within the first six months. Ready to elevate your digital game, visit our website from the links below this video, or call us today for a free consultation and let's turn your digital dreams into reality. It's knowing that there's a bit of a stigma sometimes around construction work and working in the trades and things, which you think the reason is for that and is there anything you do in particular to, to handle stigma?

Yeah, so since I was a young man, a long time ago. There's been this stigma of he's naughty. We don't know what to do with him. Yeah. Construction. And that's the way it worked when I was a teenager in school. But coming from the teach the FE teaching side of it, now, it does happen [00:07:00] a bit and if you've got the right duty, you can turn them on the trade.

But there is this little stigma out on site still of big airy men with gangs, wolf whistling, and. That's long gone. That's long, long gone to be in construction. And what people do not realize is you actually have to be highly intelligent. 'cause the amount of, for example, the amount of maths in bricklaying alone.

Yeah. Obviously carpentry and other trades is huge. So this stigma needs to. Be wiped away. Again, the females coming into construction. I fully encourage this. I teach 'em every new cohort of learners. I teach them. I have a presentation on specific female bricklayers. I won't go into names. People out there will know who they are, and it is not just for males to do.

There's a lot of good female brickies out there. Again, in any of the trades I work with female brick players, female plant operators, female carpenters. So that's another stigma that is slowly coming away. There's a, there's so many people on Instagram and TikTok now female trades and they, therefore we away for that.

So that's the stigma that's slowly changing. But the one that still sticks is little Johnny's naughty. What do we do with him? We'll push him into construction. Yeah. Like I say, you've gotta be really clever. Any of the trades, you have to be really intelligent. Absolutely. Yeah. Is there anything you can think of that would help to change this kind of stigma and improve the image of getting into the trades?

Getting into trade, I think like people like myself, social media's huge, but it is a massive audience. There's so many people that I watch on social media, too many names to mention they're doing their bit, but FE. Teachers of all trades, hospitality, catering, whatever, engineering, get into the schools.

Now you've recruited now within the second term of college, start getting into this, into the secondary schools. I call 'em high schools. Get into the secondary schools, start approaching these youngsters now showing what is actually a great future in the tree. Yeah. With, without. Yeah. A kind of serious rise in the amount of people getting into construction.

Yeah. Country's in trouble really. We've got these house building targets and everything. Yes. Yeah. That's a chat for another time. Yeah. Absolutely. And what would you say to other people in the similar positions yourself? So PE people are working in the trades and on the fence about giving teaching a go.

Would you encourage that to them? Oh, absolutely. A hundred percent. A fellow brick layer colleague of mine. He was on the fence about it a few years ago and and I kept on, 'cause I was back in trade and. What do I do? What do I need to do? I'm a bit worried about standing in front of people. Do I need qualifications?

I said, look, speak to X College. Yeah, they will put you through teacher training. Don't worry about presenting in front of people. That becomes natural anyway. Especially if you can talk. It says help and in construction we can all talk. So I persuaded into that. There's nothing there is.

If you stuck on the fence, go and speak to your local college night school and visit the, get into teaching an FE campaign online. That's a good source of reference, and it'll show you how wide, when we're what, how. Like I say, you're not left alone. You can even break yourself in gently. There's part-time opportunities.

There's ad hoc opportunities. Go to an open evening. Yeah. See what it's about. But there's so much information on, like I say, The fe, getting to fe teaching campaign. Not just for construction, health and social care. Catering. Engineering, barber and hairdressing. Anyone who's got, yeah, go to their, have a look, speak to your local college.

Speak to the people like myself. The other lecture tutors. And they'll give you the honest truth. Yeah. That's awesome. Is there anything you'd say to young people about getting into construction? Why it could be a great career move for them? Like I say earlier, I I started off at 13 with, I was pot washing and waiter in, and I did a bit of general building with my uncle when I was about 13.

When I left school, I did well in school actually, and I went straight to Brooklyn on the old good old Yts, so I used to get 30, sorry, 35 pound a week, and I learned very quickly that this was actually for me. I loved it. I enjoyed it. But again, speaking to a youngster, if you are unsure, go and try it.

Yeah. When you come to an FE establishment, there's a certain amount of time, there's six weeks, so you get to come onto Brick Lane if you find within six weeks. You don't like that. If you don't like it, we can move you. If you're gonna go do an apprenticeship, there's similar rule. I would say overall construction, if you like chatting, if you can have a chat, you can have a laugh at people, you can bond with.

People, get in there, look what you can achieve from day one to day, whichever. And you build a house, you built a motor where you built a bridge, you've done something. It is fantastic to walk away. There's an old saying, and there's memes on the internet for this. You drive past the house and go, I've got that.

Yeah. Must.

Around, it's gonna excel files. It keeps you physically fit as well. And it does keep you mentally sharp as well. It's not just about, like I say, one on top of two or do an X, Y, Z. There's a lot of thinking involved, critical thinking. It is massive opportunity and without getting into it too much there's.

It is a good wage, should we say. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Sounds like a great option. The yeah. Yeah. Both the teaching for the youngsters getting into the trade and everything. Yeah. John, it's been fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. Alright, no problem. Yeah, much appreciated.

And as you mentioned, so for any of our listeners, if anyone's interested in making a similar move. Sharing existing skills by teaching in fe. There's government website, so government teaching further education. We'll put a link to it below this video so anyone can find it. And thanks for tuning in everyone.

If you enjoyed today's chat, don't forget to like and subscribe and join us next time.