Celebrating the Women into Home Building Employment Programme for New Homes Week
In this entry to our series of short blogs to support New Homes Week, we would like to celebrate the fantastic initiative launched by The Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Women Into Construction (WIC).
The ‘Women into Home Building Employment Programme’ aims to address the gender imbalance in the construction industry by launching a nationwide recruitment drive for women. With women making up only 16% of the construction workforce, this is a worthwhile cause for the industry.
Working alongside nine prominent UK property developers, including Barratt Developments, Bellway Homes, Cala Homes, The Hill Group, Keepmoat, Persimmon Homes, Redrow, St Modwen and Vistry Group, this programme aims to employ women for Site Management roles. Through the project, these developers will offer funding for childcare and training costs, to make the opportunity more accessible to women.
We’re proud to work with a number of these developers and we have happily noticed women rising to senior levels in traditionally ‘male’ roles within their organisations, as well as many of our other clients.
Last year, in our ‘Women in Construction’ campaign, Hollie Carvey, our Deputy Editorial Manager, said, ‘Having built up a network of contacts across the housebuilding industry, it’s been great to see so many women being employed and promoted in various roles within construction that were once considered 'men’s jobs.'
As we celebrated some of the most senior women in our company, we asked them for their thoughts on the employment of women in the industry.
Julia Mardell, our Chief Operating Officer, said, ‘Women certainly get more opportunities now than they did when I started working. I do think the pay scale does remain slightly out of kilter, but it is going in the right direction.’
Anna Terrell, our Head of Content, said, ‘I think the situation is improving for women in business, but that we still have a way to go before they are genuinely considered as equal, especially with equal pay.’
The ‘Women into Home Building Employment Programme’ will include site visits, a week of online insight and development sessions, a two-week work placement on site and one-to-one coaching and support from Women into Construction.
This initiative is a great step towards the equality of women in the workplace and will make good progress on the gender imbalance of employees of the construction industry.
If you would like to know more about the ‘Women into Home Building Employment Programme’ or get involved in the initiative, you can read more about the project here.
