A bricklayer or mason is a craftsman

Craftsman

Craftsman may refer to:* Craftsman , a brand of tools* Master craftsman, an artisan who practices a handicraft or trade* a style of architecture and furniture arising from the British Arts and crafts style...

 who lays bricks to construct brickwork

Brickwork

Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar to build up brick structures such as walls. Brickwork is also used to finish corners, door, and window openings, etc...

. The term also refers to personnel who use blocks

Cinder block

In the United States, a concrete masonry unit – also called concrete block, cement block, and foundation block – is a large rectangular brick used in construction. Concrete blocks are made from cast concrete, i.e. Portland cement and aggregate, usually sand and fine gravel for high-density blocks...

 to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry

Masonry

Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...

. In British

British English

British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...

 and Australian

Australian English

Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....

 English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, a bricklayer is colloquially known as a "brickie".

The training of a trade in European cultures has been a formal tradition for many centuries. A craftsman typically begins in an apprenticeship

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

, working for and learning from a master craftsman

Master craftsman

A master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild....

, and after a number of years is released from his master's service to become a journeyman

Journeyman

A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....

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