Cementing a place in Olympic history

It wasn’t easy looking for a job. The credit crunch had just started around the time I finished college last year, so every time I tried to apply for a job, they said ‘no’ because they wanted five years’ experience. I was quite lucky really to get this. If it wasn’t for the Olympics, I’d probably still be looking for a job and signing on.

The apprenticeship is going to last about two years, and hopefully after that I’ll stay with the company, working my way up. I’m getting training in management as well, to get my NVQ level 2. I’m doing different things, like reading drawings, ordering materials, it’s much wider than what was taught at college. That was the basic ‘build a wall, get it right, get it plumb’. But here I’ve learned a lot – they’re trying to give me a wider outlook than just laying bricks

At the moment we’re working underneath the rake of the stadium seating, building changing rooms, toilets and other facilities.

I’m setting out to get it ready for the bricklayers to start and I’ve done a bit of building up the walls with one of the other bricklayers.

I thought the work would be a lot harder, I thought there would be a lot more pressure to get things done really quickly. But everyone’s taking their time, getting things right, doing it all safely.

They’re trying to give me a wider outlook than just laying bricks

It is good to work on the Olympics, you do feel like you’re part of a team. Especially for the size of it, there’s so many people working in one place but there’s definitely a feeling that you’re all working together. There are quite a few women here from different companies, mainly engineers and managers, and I think there’s three female apprentices. But we don’t have women’s get togethers. I fit in with all the blokes fine. When I was younger, I used to get on better with the boys anyway.

In the mornings I get the train to Stratford, then the minibus from the station to the stadium, it’s quite easy to get here. But you can’t really go for a drink with colleagues after work, it does takes a long time to get in and out.

I’ll be here until November or December, when the contract here finishes. But Galostar is hoping to get another contract on another area of the site, and I could maybe move on to that job. The company hopes to keep the same people on the job.

I think the Olympics has had an impact locally, in terms of jobs. My brother is going to come on to the site to do a bit of digging work, and he found it quite easy to get a job here as well. My friend’s other half is doing plumbing on the site, and he loves it too. If the work’s there, you can get on the site. I think my mum’s quite proud that both her kids are going to be working on the Olympics!