Construction bursary scheme: Band of Builders launches BoB Bursary for tools, PPE and workwear

Band of Builders, the construction charity, has launched a construction bursary scheme to help people starting out in the trade with tools, PPE and workwear, Electrical Contracting News reports. The BoB Bursary goes first to existing students at Leeds College of Building, Bedford College and South Staffordshire College, according to Electrical Contracting News.

So if one of your apprentices studies at one of those three colleges, the scheme is starting where they study. The help goes on the learner’s kit. It’s one of several grants and schemes around trades training, and it isn’t the one that pays you for taking someone on: that’s the apprenticeship hiring payment from DWP.

Construction bursary help goes on tools, PPE and workwear

Eligible applicants will be able to apply for support towards essential items, Electrical Contracting News reports: tools and equipment, PPE and workwear, plus other items they need for their training and development. That’s the boots, the hard hat and the first set of hand tools that a new starter usually has to find before they’ve earned much.

What isn’t out yet: how much each learner gets, whether it arrives as cash or as kit, who qualifies beyond the students the launch is aimed at, and when applications open. Nothing in the report says a business can apply on someone’s behalf, or whether an apprentice already on your books counts.

Kit costs push some new starters out, the charity says

Band of Builders chief executive Gavin Crane, quoted by Electrical Contracting News, put the reason plainly: “Construction needs the next generation, but we cannot simply tell young people that this is a fantastic industry and then leave them to overcome the practical barriers of getting started on their own.”

Crane said the charity’s work with colleges and learners showed that the cost of tools, PPE and workwear “can be a very real obstacle”. “For a young person at the beginning of their career, those costs can mean the difference between taking an opportunity and having to walk away from it.”

Crane tied it to the skills shortage in UK construction: “If we are serious about tackling the skills shortage and bringing tens of thousands of new people into construction, we have to remove those barriers.”

More colleges could follow, but for now it’s three

The charity unveiled the bursary at its annual fundraising ball in Birmingham, Electrical Contracting News reports, without giving a date for the event. It’s part of the charity’s Next Generation agenda, which aims to encourage more young people to consider construction.

Band of Builders projects that students from more than 250 UK colleges could also benefit, Electrical Contracting News reports. That’s a projection of future reach. For now the launch is at the three named colleges.

Electrical Contracting News sets the bursary against the government’s plan to train 40,000 construction learners by 2029 through Construction Technical Excellence Colleges, the construction college network for new learners. The report draws no funding link between that plan and the bursary.

If someone on your team is at one of the three colleges, their college is the place to ask. That’s where the scheme is starting.