Former student gets the skills from College to set him on the path to self-employment

A former Rotherham College student is now his own boss after becoming a self-employed bricklayer.

Nathan Ward studied Bricklaying level 1 and progressed all the way through to level 3. He always knew that he wanted to do something in construction but wasn’t sure which trade he wanted to learn.

The more he studied bricklaying, the more his passion grew. He was taught by Joe Wilde and feels that he received a huge amount of support from him.

Nathan said: “If you want to do something that will give you a job, come to College. I’ve had loads of support and I’ve learnt more at College in three years than I ever did at school”.

Whilst at College Nathan worked part-time at Macro stacking shelves, but he had aspirations to become self-employed.

After completing his Bricklaying level 3 course in 2013, he spent a short amount of time looking for a job and found one working for Noble Homes.

“I got the skills to do bricklaying at College but now I’m fine tuning them in the workplace”, he said.

“I would definitely recommend others to do bricklaying at Dinnington. The tutors are the main reason to come here. They are really supportive.”

Nathan has teamed up with another bricklayer and they are working self-employed building houses.
He plans to come back to College to do an NVQ where he can be assessed on site while he is working.

Find out more about Nathans story by visiting: www.rotherham.ac.uk/mystory