OTE Construction Training

Shoutout to Sarah Oldfield and Marshalltown UK for supporting OTE Construction Training!
We connected at the Supertrowel final, caught up on Teams, and days later this amazing goodie box arrived!
The new mortar board, jointers, lines, and corner blocks are perfect for our learners. Thank you for investing in the next generation of bricklayers!

This week at OTE, our first-year bricklaying apprentices are learning to conquer the heights! Working high up is a massive part of being a successful builder. But did you know many people never test if they are afraid of heights before starting their construction career?We are changing the game. Before any of our students head out to a real site, they will be proving they have the confidence to work safely at any level.Check out these photos of the team tackling their ladder assessments this week! They did a fantastic job. Drop a Comment to show our apprentices some support!

ATTENTION HULL & HUMBER REGION TRADES & CONTRACTORS!
Thinking about taking on a new apprentice or upskilling your site team? The government just announced a massive funding package to make hiring young apprentices cheaper and easier than ever!
Here’s what local businesses need to know: £0 Training Costs for under-25 apprentices in small & medium businesses (100% government funded!)
Up to £2,000 hiring bonus paid directly to your business for young recruits (with total employer support worth up to £8,000!)
95% government funding for apprentices aged 25+No Employer National Insurance to pay for apprentices under 25!
NEW Candidate Support: Families of young apprentices can now receive up to a £4,500/year household bursary, making trade apprenticeships way more attractive to local school-leavers and young talent!
Important: All funding, grants, and bonuses are subject to employer and candidate eligibility criteria.
At OTE Construction Training in Hull, we handle all the paperwork and training so you can keep your jobs running smoothly on site.
We deliver fully supported apprenticeships in: Bricklaying
Joinery
Groundworks
Property Maintenance Plastering
& Site Skills
Get your site fully staffed with skilled, motivated tradespeople while these funds are available!
Get in touch with the OTE team today to see how much funding you qualify for!
Send us a message on Facebook or email [email protected] or [email protected] and we’ll reach check your eligibility.

HELP OUR HULL GROUNDWORKS APPRENTICES GET THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB!

Our groundworks apprentices have had an incredibly busy week! They’ve been putting in the graft—laying and cutting new pin kerbs to a precise 20mm fall, resetting paving units, sand screeding, and building timber shuttering to get ready for more concreting.

They are working hard to master their trade, but our department needs a little help from our local suppliers and tool hire yards.

Right now, we don’t have dedicated tools for our groundworks team. We are constantly borrowing cement mixers, wheelbarrows, and shovels from the bricklaying and plastering departments. We can only use the disc cutters and mixers when they aren't using them!

To give these future Hull tradespeople the training they deserve, we are looking to partner with suppliers for tools, machinery, or materials.

We would love to connect with local and national trade teams nearby like:
Services
Tool and Plant Hire
Hire Station
Building Plastics
Hardware Ltd
Drainage & Workwear Supplies



Whether it’s refurbished equipment, older ex-hire kit (mixers, vibrating plates, cut-off saws), or heavy-duty Bulldog shovels and groundworks gear—your support will directly help local young people build a real career.

In return, we would love to proudly showcase your business in our training academy and give you regular shout-outs across our social media pages!

Can our local community please share this post, tag the right people, or point us toward any community support or regional trade managers?

Let’s build the future of Hull construction together!

Huge thank you to Quatra Direct from everyone at Orchard Training & Education (OTE)!
couple of weeks ago, I reached out to Jade Donaldson at Quatra Direct regarding lime render for our apprentice plasterers. Without a single hesitation, Jade jumped right into action!The speed of their support was absolutely incredible:Tuesday: We had our first conversation with Jade. Friday: 120 bags of lime render were delivered straight to our centre. Generously supplied completely free of charge! This massive donation is a huge deal for our trainees. In many plastering courses, rendering units are often just taught as theory. A lot of apprentice plasterers only get the knowledge on paper, but they rarely get to actually have a go and practice the physical application.Thanks to Quatra Direct, our apprentices are spending this week mixing and applying traditional lime render for the very first time! It was fantastic to see them gaining true, hands-on experience with these materials. This gives them a massive advantage as they start their careers in the trade.We cannot thank Jade Donaldson and the team at Quatra Direct enough for this amazing generosity. You are making a genuine investment in the next generation of plasterers!
Can your business help support the next generation?
Support from companies like this is invaluable to training centres like ours. If your business can help support us at OTE to train the next generation of construction workers, please get in touch!
Email us today at: [email protected]
Check out some photos of our apprentices hard at work this week!

CAN YOU HELP US SAVE WATER?
We need a little help from our amazing community!Our two training centres are busy places. Our students use a massive amount of water every week mixing up mortar, plaster, and concrete.To help protect the environment and cut down our water usage, we want to start catching rainwater coming off our roofs! To do this, we are looking for a donation of 3 IBC tanks (the big water cubes in metal cages).If you or a local business have 3 clean IBCs that you no longer need, we would love to take them off your hands!Please send us a message or comment below if you can help us go green.

BECOMING A SOLDIER WAS IN MY BLOOD. LIFE HAD OTHER PLANS.

​My grandad was shot and bedridden in WWI.

My dad lied about his age to enlist at 14, driving ambulances in Egypt.

My older brother landed on the Falklands, survived two tours in Northern Ireland, and later joined the fire brigade.

​Growing up, my mind was made up: I was off to army university to make sergeant and climb the ranks.

​Then came my brother’s stag night. He was home on leave to get married, got a bit too drunk, and spent the night talking me out of enlisting. That single conversation completely redirected my life.

​Fast forward to today: I am the Director of Occupational Development at OTE Construction Training. While my career path changed, my deep respect for our armed forces never did.

​Now, I want to use my position to give back to the men and women who served.

​We are preparing to launch a new program dedicated to helping veterans transition into construction. We’re starting with short, sharp, intensive training courses for future bricklayers, before expanding into other trades. Veterans bring unmatched discipline, teamwork, and resilience—the exact qualities our industry is crying out for.

​To make this happen and train these heroes at no cost to them, WE NEED FUNDING.

​We are looking to connect with:

Grant providers and funding bodies

Construction companies looking to sponsor a vet

Organisations passionate about supporting our armed forces community

​If you can help, want to partner with us, or know someone who might, please send me a message or share this post to help us spread the word. Let’s build something great for those who served us.
Contact [email protected]

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Huge shoutout and thank you to STABILA UK!

For the last 18 months, Stabila UK has been working closely with us at OTE Construction Training. They’ve spent time at our centres showing our students what top-quality measuring tools look like, and they’ve backed it up with incredible donations: 1200mm box levels for our pre-16s and apprentices A full laser level set with tripod & staff for our groundworkers And now... a fresh batch of around 15 magnetic boat levels!

(We also had a great time recording an episode of the "Forgotten at School, Found on Site" podcast with Oliver Partington—definitely give it a search if you haven't heard it!)

The latest delivery landed while we were down at the Supertrowel final at Hertfordshire County Showground. Along with the boat levels came a couple of Stabila T-shirts. CEO Ben Mills has now put down a bet with the staff that he’ll fit into the XL T-shirt by the end of October!

Thanks to Stabila UK for the brilliant support for our learners—and for kicking off the CEO’s new diet!

Added a great new addition to the OTE Construction Training head office trophy cabinet this week!
​Brought our glazed brick/tile given to Kev Davison for Judging at Super trowel to put alongside all our other silverware from this year. It's awesome to see it all together—so proud to be part of one of the best bricklaying training teams in the UK!
​A quick reminder that alongside brickwork, we train across all main trades:
Joinery
Plastering
Groundworks
Property Maintenance
Site Management (up to Level 6!)
​WE ARE EXPANDING!
If you’re a local business in the Hull or Humber region taking on apprentices, or a training provider looking to partner up and utilize funding, we’d love to hear from you.
​Send a direct message here or drop an email to [email protected]!

What a weekend representing OTE at the Supertrowel 2026 finals!
​Held outdoors for the first time at Hertfordshire County Showground, the weather couldn't have been better for two days of top-tier bricklaying competition.
​Hats off to directors Jack, Joe, and Ash, as well as the media crew, for pulling off a phenomenal show. A massive thank you to CPI EuroMix for keeping the mortar flowing smoothly, wienerberger UK for the bricks, and all the incredible sponsors who backed the event (someone actually drove away in a brand-new Ford truck! .
​As judges, we certainly had our hands full with some close calls and appeals, but the quality of work was unreal. The Masters division was decided by just 1 POINT across the top three!
​If you're involved in construction, make sure Supertrowel is in your diary for next year—you won't want to miss it.
​(Hoping they get my name right on the brick for 2027 though! 😅)
​📸 Drop your photos from the weekend in the comments below!
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