Ibstock Brick helps to lay foundation for students at Crawley College

Students at Crawley College have welcomed a generous donation from a national supplier.

Ibstock Brick have donated 22 packs of red bricks – that’s around 11,000 bricks – to the college, to help students as they learn the tools of the trade.

The bricks will be used by more than 150 students, studying on a variety of brickwork courses – from level 1 to level 3, as well as adult learners and foundation students.

It means they will be able to put their learning into practice as they learn different building techniques for laying foundations, constructing walls and other built structures.

Barry Hutton, Deputy Head of Learning for Construction at Crawley College, said: “This is a phenomenally generous donation from Ibstock, which will make a huge difference to our students.

“These will keep us going for at least 12-18 months and will enable our students to achieve better results in their test pieces, with new bricks giving builds a sharper finish.

“Being able to work with different bricks, of differing age and material, means they will develop more rounded skills which they can take into the workplace.

“We will get a massive amount of use from these bricks, as we will able to reuse them in future products.

“We are extremely grateful to Ibstock and also to Wincanton, who very kindly delivered them to us for free.”

Ibstock currently employs an engineering apprentice through the college, plus another that completed their studies this year, cementing a flourishing working partnership between the two organisations.

Adam Foster is the Factory Manager at the local Ibstock Brick South Holmwood Manufacturing Site – and is a former student of the college, completing his studies in 2004.

He said: “We are very pleased to be in a position to support our local college, their students and assist in developing talent for the future.

“We consider it a great opportunity to grow our partnership with Crawley College which will benefit us all in the future. I would also like to thank our logistics partner Wincanton who kindly agreed to deliver the bricks for free.”