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Girls Allowed – Event to promote opportunities for women in construction
Dayle Bayliss recently represented the RICS matrics Suffolk at a joint venture between ISG Plc, Construction Skills and Suffolk Education Business Partnership. The event was arranged to promote the roles of women in construction and some of the opportunities that exist for entry. The event was attended by year 9 pupils from Copleston High School, Ipswich Academy, Felixtsowe Academy, Hadleigh High School and Stoke High School and included a range of activities to introduce the pupils to careers in construction. The morning saw the pupils quizing four females who all work in construction and trying to work out what their roles were. This included a Business Development Manager, a Sustainability Manager, A Quantity Surveyor and Dayle as a Design Manager. This gave an insight into our backgrounds and how we all came to work in construction, as well as showing that you don’t need to work in a trade, like a plumber or a bricklayer, to work in construction. The school groups then moved on to activities to establish what the pupils skills and interest were and match these to roles within construction. This included Site Manager, Quality Manager, Health and Safety Advisor, Project Manager, Quantity Surveyor, Building Surveyor and Designers to name just a few. This demonstrated that the construction industry uses so many different skills that there is a role to suit everyone.The routes to entry are well supported within the construction industry with apprenticeships, placements or part time study. The theme of the afternoon was for the schools to look at the existing leaflets that have been produced by Construction Skills and ISG and come up with a design that would attract the minorities that are under represented within the construction sector. Helen Clements, of ISG, gave a brief introduction to branding and the ISG brand and how this needed to be incorporated into the design. Each group identified roles and tasks to complete the leaflet with a presentation of their proposals at the end. A prize was given to Copleston High School for a highly commended poster and Felixstowe Academy came first. Out of each of the schools one team member was awarded a weeks work experience with ISG in recognition for their hard work within the team activities.
The day enabled a real insight into the construction sector and the diversity of opportunities that are available, highlighting that there are no barriers to entry and a range of ways to get into construction.
