'I received hundreds of applications in an hour' - Edinburgh stonemason overwhelmed by response to apprenticeship post

Stuart Inkster, of Edinburgh Stonemasons, has since had to remove the job advert, which was up for less than a day last week, after hundreds of applications and phone calls came flooding in.

"Within less than five minutes of posting information about the apprenticeship on Facebook my phone was just going ping ping ping,” the 36-year-old said, who has been working in the industry for about 16 years.

"The post wasn’t even up for 24 hours before I had to take it down because there was no way I was going to be able to get through all the messages.

"I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Stuart, who works with a team of just four stonemasons, said the influx of applications is likely due to there being limited work opportunities at the moment.

"I imagine with the pandemic going on a lot of companies are feeling uncertain about what’s to happen next and just aren’t taking on apprentices,” he said.

"We can only afford to take on one, but this just shows that there needs to be more stonemasons, and the existing stonemasons need to hire more apprentices.”

Gordon Mallace, a former lecturer in stonemasonary at Edinburgh College who taught Stuart and now works for stronemasonary business F A Sweeney, said more apprenticeships need to be made available for those interested in the trade.

In response to hearing about the overwhelming response to Stuart’s job advert, he said he’s not surprised.

"When I was still lecturing at the college a few years ago there weren’t enough employers taking on apprentices,” he said.

"Now, with the impact of Covid, companies will be a bit more unsure about whether or not they will have enough work to take one on.

"But, there is the work, there is the demand, so there needs to be more employers taking them on.”

Mr Mallace said funding exists for companies to take on apprentices which he said should be an incentive.

The team at F A Sweeney consist of nine stonemasons and currently have two apprentices.