Brickie Suzie cements award

Oct 26 2007 by Iain Laing, The Journal

A TEENAGE apprentice bricklayer from Teesside is proving construction work is no longer a male preserve.

Suzie Winn, 18, has been chosen from more than 500 apprentices currently being trained by Barratt Homes to become the company’s first ever female winner of the Barratt Newcastle’s Apprentice of the Year Award.

The talented worker won her award for her contribution to Barratt’s The Chase development in Ingleby Barwick.

She spends most of her working week on the site, with one day at college.

She said: “I’ve always been a very active person and really didn’t want to be inside working at a desk job, which is why I thought I’d try my hand at bricklaying.

“It is very hard work but I’m really enjoying it, I’m working for my NVQ through the CITB, so I have lots of support.

“The apprenticeship is ideal because I learn things on site which I wouldn’t learn at college. Equally, at college I find out things that I haven’t learned yet on site.”

Suzie, who lives just a few minutes up the road from The Chase, has just started the second year of her apprenticeship under the guidance of experienced bricklayer Martin Cryer.

Barratt Newcastle managing director Bernard Rooney said: “Suzie thoroughly deserves this accolade.”