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Up to 15 local teachers and education staff are taking part in an awareness day event this week (22 Nov) focusing on careers in construction.

The event has been organised by BCHT’s Asset Management’s Contract Services and aims to encourage more young people particularly women and people from ethnic minority communities to look at training in trades such as plumbing, joinery, bricklaying and professional roles.

The awareness day takes place at BCHT’s City House in Bradford and will be attended by representatives from a number of secondary schools within West Yorkshire as well as business and enterprise colleges at Laisterdyke and Buttershaw.

Staff from BCHT, the CITB-ConstructionSkills national training board and the JIVE project, based at Bradford College, will talk about the different construction career opportunities.

The event is also supported by the Bradford Education Business Partnership.

It will include workshops looking at tackling under-representation in the industry among different groups including females and BME communities.

Teachers will also hear more about the work experiences of female apprentices and professionals employed by the housing trust.

The teacher awareness day forms part of plans developed by Delroy Beverley, BCHT’s Director of Contract Services. He said: “The aim of the day is to reinforce our message as part of our ‘Boardroom to the Playground’ campaign. It aims to highlight to teachers and education staff that construction careers for young people are open to everyone and not just for boys.

“Taking the message into the school staff room is a good way of reaching young people in the classroom about the excellent opportunities in the construction business. The event follows the very successful ‘taster’ day for local female students held earlier this year and we are keen to ensure the awareness day makes a similar impact on everyone taking part.

“As a major employer in the district, BCHT is fully committed to employing talented and enthusiastic people and addressing areas of under-representation. For example, 20% of our trades apprentices are now female and in our recent recruitment drive over a quarter of applications came from female and people from BME communities.

“Working with schools and leading training bodies such as CITB-ConstructionSkills we want to open doors to some exciting and fulfilling career opportunities.”

19.11.07