Women leave their lasting mark
Building boom, paired with a range of opportunities, is attracting both sexes to the construction industry, writes
many years and was concerned that more women didn’t apply for their annual awards.
“Women are often very reluctant to put themselves forward for awards,” she says.
She became aware of a small award run by Hays ( launched in 2013) and decided they could partner with the company to take the awards forward.
“We launched this in 2015,” she says. “In an ideal world we wouldn’t have an award that was just for women, but we’ve already seen how it encourages women to come forward and tell their stories.”
Jason Walker from Hays says the recruiters from Hays started noticing an increased amount of women applying for construction positions around the Christchurch rebuild.
“We recognised that a significant number of women were applying for these construction roles,” he says.
With the rebuild in full swing and crying out for talent on the ground, they were mindful that they had an untapped market.
“Women have been very underutilised in this area,” he says.
“We decided to set up an award to showcase the great work that women are doing in construction and raise awareness of it as a career.”
He says attendance at the awards has more than doubled in the years it’s been running, an indication that women are becoming more aware of the industry as a legitimate option.
“The first awards attracted about 100 people, and we predict we’ll be getting about 400 for next year’s event which will be run in Auckland for the first time,” he says.
“There is so much more interest in construction as a career than ever before.”
Davies agrees. She says the range of opportunities ( from project management to communications, trades to engineering) coupled with our construction boom make the industry ever more appealing to women.
“Construction i s traditionally a “boom and bust” industry,” she says.
“But the great thing about it is that many of the skills are transferable to other jobs. Construction is challenging and hard work, but ultimately very rewarding.”