Picture caption: Jenny Gilruth MSP (centre) alongside Persimmon Homes and Fife College representatives
Persimmon Homes East Scotland has celebrated a significant skills-development milestone after donating its 100,000th brick to construction colleges across the country.
The landmark was marked at Fife College, where Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills and local MSP Jenny Gilruth joined students to receive the latest 10,000-brick delivery.
This instalment brings Persimmon’s total contribution to Fife College to 30,000 bricks.
The donation programme provides students with high-quality construction materials identical to those used on live housing sites, giving learners hands-on experience that mirrors real-world building environments. Persimmon says the 100,000 bricks supplied to date are enough to build an entire street of three-bedroom family homes.
Strengthening pathways into construction careers
Persimmon’s partnership with Fife College was further strengthened in 2024 when local apprentice Casey Gardner was recruited through the housebuilder’s apprenticeship programme.
The initiative enables more young people in Fife to train, work, and stay in their local communities while supporting Scotland’s construction workforce needs.
Cabinet Secretary Jenny Gilruth praised the collaboration, saying it is “helping more young people in Fife to live, learn and work locally, while contributing to Scotland’s growing construction sector.” She joined staff and students at the Stenton Campus in Glenrothes to mark the milestone and meet the first apprentice appointed under the partnership.
Hands-on experience with industry-grade materials
William Smith, Senior Regional Apprenticeship Manager at Persimmon Homes East Scotland, said providing materials directly supports the development of future construction talent. “By donating these materials, we’re giving students the chance to gain invaluable hands-on experience — building their skills and confidence in a real-world context.”
Jim Metcalfe, Principal of Fife College, added that the partnership is crucial for strengthening the region’s construction skills pipeline, calling it “vital to ensuring skilled workers for our region’s construction industry.”
Supporting Scotland’s skills pipeline
Persimmon Homes delivers more than 1,500 energy-efficient homes annually in Scotland. The bricks supplied to colleges are manufactured at the company’s high-capacity Doncaster factory, which produces over 72 million bricks a year — enough, Persimmon notes, to stretch from Fife to Florence and back.
The 100,000-brick donation forms part of Persimmon’s broader commitment to supporting training, apprenticeships, and construction-skills development nationwide, ensuring a strong supply of qualified tradespeople for Scotland’s housing sector.
