Become a brickie to build a career, Labour tells schoolchildren

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/03/22/labour-bridget-phillipson-school-leavers-jobs-construction/

by Fox_9810

20 comments

  1. I remember being told by teachers under Labour that if I became a bricklayer, I’d be a scruff like those seeking the dole. Now they tell my children to go be a bricklayer otherwise they’ll be workshy. There’s no winning, is there?

  2. They’re right, at the moment. Shortage in bricklayers etc…

    The problem is whenever they do any kind of “get people into x profession” drive you wind up with too many people trying to go into it, which drives the wages down, then it turns into a shit job that nobody wants to do and then a gap opens up somewhere else in the market because everybody who WOULD have gone into that went into the other thing you told people about instead.

    What is the solution to that?

  3. Building houses they’ll rarely ever own. They’ll be given away

  4. Not sure about bricklaying, but learning a trade is a pretty good way to build a life. Plumbers, plasterers, electricians, joiners, they can all make a lot of money and do it without having to answer to an employer.

    Does the Telegraph think everyone, including the poors, should go to university now? That hasn’t been their tune in the past.

  5. Binary thinking has done us a disservice. People should pursue whatever viable career is right for them.

  6. Can’t we just put a structure in place that allows people to go into various well paying industries?

  7. These will be 6 month courses, learning rudimentary skills.

    I did college for three years.

  8. This article is so anti bricklayer as if it’s some scum of the earth job lol like fr it’s good money and a stable job which is rare these days

  9. This is all pointless posturing by the government.

    They know there aren’t enough jobs to go around. They know there are too many people to fill them.

    They are unwilling to invest in the country to create those new jobs nor deal with the societal issues surrounding workplaces so while these clowns give kids these ideas, they will absolutely continue to ensure that unemployment remains a certainty for some (even moreso if you suffer from a disability).

  10. Bet those Labour ministers aren’t saying that to their kids though

  11. It’s more of a restoration job nowadays. Get an engineering degree. Build a robot to lay bricks..

  12. You have to have it inside you to want to be a bricklayer. I knew at the age of three I wanted to be a Bricklayer when I was older. Upon leaving school aged 16 I went to college and started a Bricklaying course but I just didn’t have the ability, skills or interests when I was 16 so gave after a few weeks and went and learnt another trade.

    I reattempt getting back into bricklayer a few years later aged 21 and bought a few bricks and some training mortar just to practice cutting, rolling and spreading mortar and after a few weeks gave up and interest diminished. It wasn’t until I was 37 and after having watching too many episodes of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet that I wanted to pick up the trowel again and attempt to pursue my inner calling once more. It was then that everything started falling into place and enrolled in a few Bricklaying college courses and being older I had the acquired transferable skills and took to Bricklaying like a duck to water. I’ve been bricklayer now for the past 6 years and absolutely love it. I’m 43 so do have to look after myself then when I was younger. It’s important to look after yourself in construction.

  13. I wish i became a brickie!!!! More money than my chemistry degree offers

  14. I would love a govt to have some joined up thinking. Not just teach the skills but how to grow and develop your own business. 

    If I was starting after my degree again I’d have retrained in a trade (i ended up learning anyway once i bought a house and couldn’t always afford to get a tradesman in). 

    At £65 an hour labour as a tradey i could work 40% of the time and be no worse off. 

  16. Yes everyone become a bricklayer until the market is saturated and everyone is a bricklayer and wages start dropping.any easy job eventually gets found out and gets saturated. Its happening inthe IT industry. The real money is actual difficult roles line becoming a Dentist.

  17. I can guarantee that no MP is going to tell their own children to become a ‘brickie’.

    ‘Let them eat apprenticeships’.

  18. We shouldn’t have pushed such a vast swathe of our youth into universities.

    If everyone has a degree, nobody has a degree (outside of fields where what you learn is 100% necessary of course).

  19. While they’re right, there are plenty of trades that are far more technical, things like renewable power generation installation etc or even more on the architecture/engineering side of things

    I’ve heard that bricklayers are considered to be the worst trade to be in because of the monotony (roofers as well because it fucks up their knees and there is no protection from the elements)

  20. Rigidity in the education and skills of the workforce is a big problem.

    We want to provide free Re-education for workers so that they can be retrained in a new profession more easily, or to relearn the newest skills of their current profession.

    Because you shouldn’t have to pick what you want to do for the rest of your life so young and then get shafted if it doesn’t work out.

    [Productiv](https://gofile.io/d/hw9c7G)

Comments are closed.