City & Guilds 6217 Bricklaying Certificate

If you are considering training to become a bricklayer then this course is a great way to start, the City & Guilds 6217 Bricklaying Certificate includes most things necessary to enable you to go on to achieve the National recognised Bricklaying NVQ Level 2.

The City and Guilds are the industry leaders in setting out the required skills to do certain jobs. So before you sign up for a course make sure to ask if the training centre is City & Guilds Accredited. That way you'll know you'll be getting the correct training and a qualification that's recognized by the construction trade.

For bricklaying, the City and Guilds 6217 Bricklaying certificate is a great way for a complete beginner who has no previous experience to gain the skills needed to start a new career in the construction industry.

The courses last from 6-8 weeks if you do them in a block i.e. intensive route or most training centres let you spread them over the course of the year if you are unable or would rather spread them out part time style.

To obtain a City & Guilds 6217 Bricklaying Certificate you must complete 9 skill units with 7 being compulsory and 2 optional that you may pick.

Below is a list of mandatory units:

Working with stretcher bond walling
Block wall 102.5mm thick
Cavity wall with frame recess
Timber frame faced with best brickwork
Stepped foundation using trench blocks
Cavity wall using precast stone arch
Brick and block gable end

And the optional units:

Semi-circled arch - rough ringed
Single flue chimney and pot using DPC
One brick thick Flemish bond with projection
Attached pier in English garden wall bond
One brick thick EGWB with oversailing course
Course and random rubble stonework
English bond manhole

After you have completed the 9 units successfully, your course provider will award you your City & Guilds 6217 Bricklaying certificate.

Although you now would have a the City & Guilds Technical Certificate which proves you have undergone the correct training to become a bricklayer, to be considered a fully qualified bricklayer you will now need to go on and archive a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ).

Bricklaying courses cannot award you with an NVQ, you can only get assessed for an NVQ once you are working as a bricklayer, there is a chicken and egg situation here! However during most bricklaying training over the course of time you would have built up a portfolio of work which will hopefully be enough to get you into the workplace to start with, and thus giving you the opportunity to gain your NVQ in Bricklaying.

An NVQ shows that you have demonstrated to an NVQ assessor you can put into practice the skills you have learned on the city & guilds courses in the work space in a competent and safe manner.