South East London MCA Hub hosts productive and frank virtual event for International Women's Day 2021

: Created: 11 March 2021

The virtual event was aimed at supporting women who are interested in building a career in the construction sector by helping them connect with employers who offer work experience, signposting pathways to pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeships as well as highlighting the range of job opportunities in the construction sector.

Our panel of speakers gave frank and inspirational advice, offering their real-life insights and experiences in the industry. Their talks covered the barriers that women can face in the industry, the perception of construction as a suitable career for women and how that culture is changing. They also detailed the career benefits and joys of working in the construction and built environment sectors.

Luke Burton, Manager of the South East London MCA Hub said: “I’d like to send a huge thank you to everyone who attended our fabulous event. We had a wide range of attendees consisting of students from across our MCA Hub of training providers, employers and members of the public looking for a suitable career route into the construction industries. A special thanks goes to our excellent panel of construction professionals - Katie Kelleher from Select Plant Hire, Rebecca Lovelace from Building People, Livia Williams and Jemma Docherty from Youthbuild, Helen Tapper from FIS and Kevin O’Connor from Durkan who all helped to deliver a truly inspirational event.

“There was a great deal of interaction between the attendees and the panel. The main purpose of the event was to help women and girls into the construction industry by offering training and employment. I have already received lots of emails from women looking to enter the sector and I will be speaking to them on an individual basis to discuss the best pathway for training and progression. Feedback from all parties has been excellent and we are looking at making this a regular event so we can really make a difference and start to turn around the lack of women working in construction.”

The Supporting Women in Construction virtual event is the launch platform for a series of webinars which will address in more detail the areas of interest, required support identified and further information requests that were raised at the conference and breakout sessions.