Women in Construction Event Encourages Young Women to Join the Industry

As part of Northern Ireland Apprenticeship Week (26 - 30 April 2021), CITB NI took part in a range of virtual activities aimed at encouraging the construction industry to support and develop more opportunities for apprentices, as well as guiding apprentices to the opportunities available in the sector.

Thursday 27 May 2021

Women in Construction Event Encourages Young Women to Join the Industry

As part of Northern Ireland Apprenticeship Week (26 - 30 April 2021), CITB NI took part in a range of virtual activities aimed at encouraging the construction industry to support and develop more opportunities for apprentices, as well as guiding apprentices to the opportunities available in the sector.

Our CITB NI Women in Construction Network event, in partnership with CIOB, encouraged young women to consider a career in construction by featuring talks from six successful women already working in the industry. The talks featured occupations such as architecture, procurement & supply chain management, construction law, health & safety, design management, and commercial management showing that there is more to construction than hard hats and muddy boots.

Opportunities to travel and progress through different job roles were highlighted as well as the fact that the industry is open to career changers from different sectors as well as those who enter it directly from school. Some of the key pieces of advice provided were to get work experience e.g. working in a construction company’s office during the summer holidays, make connections, and use social media to learn more about careers you might be interested in. Pupils were able to ask questions in an interactive session and were sent follow-up information to help guide them further.

Twenty schools benefitted from the event, either attending on the day or accessing the recording afterwards and one pupil said, ‘This was amazing to listen to, and I felt so confident about going into the construction industry’. Events such as this are vital to show young women that there are a multitude of career opportunities in the construction industry for women, no matter what subjects you are studying at school.

CITB NI’s Women in Construction Network is opening to anyone working in the construction industry – we run events (currently virtual), networking sessions (monthly via Zoom), site visits, seminars as well as getting involved in careers work such as events, and paper and video case studies. If you are interested in joining or finding out more, please e-mail karen.hunter@citbni.org.uk. Follow on Facebook CITBNorthernIreland, Twitter @citbni, LinkedIn citb-ni and Instagram @citbni

Thursday 27 May 2021