Bricklaying, roof slating and tiling students at Leeds College of Building are to benefit from sponsorship agreements with building products suppliers and manufacturers to lay on bricks, roofing materials and personal protective equipment.

Brick manufacturer Wienerberger will supply safety clothing as well as thousands of bricks so that bricklaying students can practice laying. Similarly, the company’s roof tile brand Sandtoft will provide clay roof tiles for the college’s roofing students.

Leeds-based Howarth Timber will meanwhile supply students with high visibility clothing after the college hosted a number of training events for the company’s sales team.

This trio of companies joins a number of other organisations that sponsor the education provider’s roofing and bricklaying courses. These include Midland Lead, John Brash, Cembrit, Klober, Hunslet Roofing, Kestevens, CUPA and Burlington Slate.

Steve Connell, curriculum manager at Leeds College of Building, said: “Having the support of these organisations makes a huge difference to both our roofing and bricklaying students giving them the opportunity to work with the latest building materials from leading manufacturers that they will no doubt continue to use throughout their careers.

“Our new 8,000sqm campus, which opened earlier this year, is also built using Wienerberger’s bricks and includes pillars around the building which showcase many types of brick laying bond, so it’s particularly fitting that students can now work with the same bricks.

“The donation of high visibility clothing from Howarth Timber and Wienerberger has also been popular with our students. Wearing personal protective equipment is an essential habit to get into and it also helps to replicate a live construction site, so it’s something we’re always keen to promote.”

Mark Terry, national sales manager at Howarth Timber, said: “We’re delighted to support Leeds College of Building with this donation. The college recently hosted a superb training event for us, which gave our entire sales team the opportunity to use a wide range of products they sell on a daily basis, as well as gaining first-hand experience of how they work and benefit tradespeople.

“The event culminated with a skills competition and it was a huge success, we’re already planning to run another similar initiative with the College in the coming months.”

Robin Batty, key account manager at Wienerberger, said: “We pride ourselves in continually investing and supporting the future talent of the construction industry and supplying Leeds College of Building with bricks and roof tiles is a great way of doing this. It also gives students the chance to work with some of the finest building materials on the market.”

Leeds College of Building recently opened a brand new £17million purpose-built education and training facility in Leeds city centre. It delivers courses related to construction and the built environment, including apprenticeships, further and higher education and business training.

Building and construction courses are available at all levels and range from practical, work-related programmes designed to prepare students for work in a variety of trades, to technician courses that will help them progress to further study.

Leeds College of Building was established in 1960 and is the only specialist further education construction college in the UK. The college is based over four campuses at Millwright Street, North Street, Hunslet and Lockwood Way. It currently has about 7,500 students.