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girls get a taste for new careers!
7 February 2007
Over 20 teenage girls swapped the classroom for a construction site as part of special ‘taster’ day hosted by Bradford Community Housing Trust (BCHT) Group.
The event (31 Jan) was organised by BCHT’s Bradford Building Services (BBS) - Business Development Service and aimed to give local students, aged 15 and over an insight into career opportunities for women in trades such as plumbing, joinery and professional roles.
During the day they took part in a role playing exercise and met experienced female construction professionals and trade apprentices employed by the housing trust. Their day will finish off with a visit to a housing trust construction site.
Five local secondary schools took part in the day at BCHT’s City House offices in Cheapside, Bradford. They are Belle Vue Girls Grammar, Bingley Grammar, Brighouse High, Tong High and Wyke Manor School.
The event has been organised and co-hosted by Delroy Beverley of Bradford Building Services and has attracted various sponsors to help raise the awareness of jobs in construction for women, most notably the national training body Construction Industry Training Board( CITB) and the JIVE project based at Bradford College. JIVE is part of the UK Resource Centre for women and works to encourage more females to work in traditionally male dominated industries such as construction and engineering.
One of the student’s Charlotte O’Bank (15) of Bingley Grammar was thrilled to take part. She said: “It’s been great to find out more about the different construction trades and meeting female employees from the housing trust. I really interested in taking an apprenticeship and I’m looking at which area interests me most.”
Delroy Beverley, BCHT’s Director of Contract Services said; “We have organised this taster day to highlight the various career opportunities available for women in the building sector. We want to break down the image of the construction sector being just jobs for the boys!
“As a major employer in the District, BCHT is fully committed to addressing areas of under-representation and in particular diversity. We feel that this event is a practical example of dealing with the issue which has been well supported by the local schools .We are very much looking forward to a busy and productive day."
“Gradually, more women are coming into the industry nationally and at BCHT we want to engage with young people interested in construction careers at an early stage and can offer a range of career opportunities from modern apprenticeships to training in technical and professional building posts. It also helps me to fulfil my role as Construction Ambassador with the CITB, which is all about encouraging new talented people from under represented areas of the community into the industry."
Bradford Community Housing Trust is over half way through a five-year improvement programme to its whole stock of 22,000 homes in the district. BBS Business Development play a key role in this modernisation work and the fitting of special adaptations in homes to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities and mobility difficulties.
07/02/07