Registrations for SkillBuild, the national multi-trade skills competition, are now open. Any stonemasonry trainee who would like to pit their skills against their fellow students can register here. 

SkillBuild is overseen by CITB. It is the largest multi-trade skills competition in the UK for construction trainees and apprentices.

A series of competitions sees those learning their skills compete against each other to be crowned the winner in their chosen trade.

Competitors will be tested on their technical abilities, their time management, problem solving and their ability to work under the inevitable pressure of a competition. THose taking part normally find they get an enormous boost to their confidence, self-esteem and life skills - all attributes valued by employers and so helpful for a career in construction.

The Regional Qualifiers run UK-wide from April to June each year. They are one-day events, the winners of which go through to the SkillBuild UK National Final in November.

SkillBuild works in partnership with WorldSkillsUK, and the winner of the Skillbuild national final could go on to compete in the European and International WorldSkills competitions.

The next two-yearly international WorldSkills takes place in Shanghai, China, on 12-17 October this year, although because of the diffciulties with Covid will not this time include stonemasonry. Stonemasonry will, however, be back in the 2024 WorldSkills in Lyon, France, and the UK aims to have a stonemason as part of Team UK.

At the previous WorldSkills in Kazan, Russia, in 2019 (Shanghai was supposed to be in 2021 but because of Covid was postponed) the UK stonemasonry contestant was Ethan Conlon, who worked at APS Masonry at the time and is now with the APS parent company, Cotswold Natural Stone, which is the Conlon family business.