BMI Academy continue National Apprenticeship Week college tour with Dundee and Angus College

The apprentices and tutors at Dundee & Angus College were delighted to receive BMI Icopal and BMI Redland materials to use in their training, as well as an exclusive CPD session on pitched roofing delivered by Simon. 

After delivering a presentation about BMI’s Apprentice of the Year competition, Simon was eager to find out the student’s experiences as apprentices and what they thought about the competition too. 

“I was a multi-trade student at college, so I did bricklaying, joinery and roofing, but roofing stood out to me because I felt more comfortable doing it. So that’s what led me to doing roofing as a career path.
“What I like most about roofing is probably going to the different jobs, working on site, and solving the different problems.  When you get to a private job, you have to find the problem and solve it yourself. So, I think you learn a lot quicker doing that, which I really enjoy.
“I definitely want to enter the Apprentice of the Year competition. I think the presentation today really opened my eyes, and I thought why not go for it.”
Liam, Apprentice at MF Roofing Scotland and student at Dundee and Angus College.

“The thing I like the most about my apprenticeship is being able to learn new things all the time – it’s not just the same job every week. There’s a lot of people skills within roofing. Obviously, having to deal with customers, who are different every day, so knowing how to speak to different people. And also, being at the college has opened my eyes to the amount of maths that goes into roofing too, which was a surprise.
“[Apprentice of the Year] seems like a great opportunity for young people to showcase their skills and learn new things as well. And regardless of whether you come first or not, it seems like a great experience.”
Brogan Rourke, Apprentice at A Rourke roofing and at Dundee & Angus College.

Simon also spoke to Tiling and Slating Lecturer, Patrick McCagh. Patrick had attended Dundee and Angus College as an apprentice, and after starting and running his own roofing business for a number of years, came back to the college as a lecturer.

“The advice that I try to give to all of the apprentices at the college is, to be punctual, have an eye for detail, work on your communication skills, but more than anything have a strong work ethic. If you’ve got work ethic everything else will fall into place.

“BMI’s support has been brilliant. The tiles we receive have helped massively. Because, with the rising cost of materials, and our budget getting cut, it is becoming so much harder for us to get high quality materials for our young apprentices. So, BMI’s support has been a huge help.”
Patrick McCagh, Slating and Tiling lecturer at Dundee and Angus College.