The Princess Royal used a trowel to cut a house-shaped cake on a visit to officially open the National House Building Council’s (NHBC) new bricklaying training hub.

Anne, 73, wore a white hard hat and yellow hi-vis jacket as she spoke to young apprentices at the facility near Cambridge.

The NHBC, which provides warranty and insurance for new homes, set up the hub as part of efforts to address the skills shortage in the housebuilding sector.

Anne arrived by helicopter and was shown around the outdoor learning space, which had a series of partially built brick structures on a concrete slab where apprentices were honing their craft.

After she spoke to scores of apprentices, she unveiled a plaque and was then asked to cut the roof of an ornately constructed house-shaped cake.

“Now I normally describe cutting special cakes as legalised vandalism,” she said.

“This is particularly true in this case and can only be done on the understanding you will eat it, preferably today.”

Steve Wood, chief executive officer of the NHBC, replied: “We will.”

Anne asked what the cake was made of and someone in the audience quipped: “Bricks!”

Before leaving, she was presented with a commemorative brick, a trowel and a bunch of flowers.

Apprentice bricklayer Toby Egan said: “She was really outgoing and asked really interesting questions as well.

“She was really switched on with her knowledge as well, which surprised me.

“She was explaining to us about damp-proof course, which is something that caught me really off guard.

“She genuinely seemed really interested in everything we had to say today and everything we were showing her.”

The 23-year-old, of Haverhill, Suffolk, said they also spoke about his background as a former goalkeeper for Ipswich Town Football Club in the reserve team.

“That didn’t work out, I didn’t make the cut, then I found myself in construction,” he said.

“It’s brilliant, I’m loving it at the moment, it’s a career I can see myself progressing in.”

Fellow apprentice bricklayer Tegan Pryor said Anne “knew about the damp proof course so she’s very intelligent, she definitely knows her stuff”.

The 22-year-old, of Shefford, Bedfordshire, said she hoped more women get into construction, adding: “It’s not all the stereotypes that people say it is, it’s really nice, it’s lovely here and good fun.”

Apprentice bricklayer Corey Ratcliff, 18, of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, said: “I think she was pretty interested in everything to be honest, I think she enjoyed it.

“She liked to talk to everyone as well and it looked like she enjoyed the conversation she had.”

A typical day for an apprentice at the hub is six hours of practical training on a large outdoor concrete slab – underneath a canopy roof – where they build substantial structures, typical of a housebuilding construction site.

They spend their first five weeks being taught by a dedicated bricklaying tutor who equips them with the skills needed to build high-quality new homes.

Apprentices then learn core practical skills as well as health and safety practices.

The centre, part of a growing national network of training facilities by the NHBC, can train cohorts of 80 people to gain a Level 2 Apprenticeship in bricklaying in as little as 14 months.

The NHBC said there are only 42,000 bricklayers in housebuilding in the UK, with a further 33,000 needed to hit the Government’s target of building 300,000 new homes every year.

It said the average salary of a bricklayer is £50,000 per year.