Women face few industry prospects

by Tim Wood



Women are discouraged from pursuing a career in construction because of the lack of opportunities once they leave college, delegates at a major conference were told last week.

More than 200 attendees at the National Tradeswomen's Conference agreed that many women were keen to join or stay in the industry, but delegates spoke of few job opportunities being available and reported that training is not being geared towards older women.

The news will come as a major blow to the Construction Industry Training Board which has expressed its concern in the past that fewer than 2% of construction employees are women.

Carol Biggs, Women and Manual Trades' development worker commented: "There are training centres in existence and they are doing a good job, but the main problem is what happens next?

"Currently, modern apprenticeships are geared towards younger women who come straight from school, but there are actually very few school-leavers entering the industry. The only training available to older women is funded by European money, it is not part of government sponsored training. This has got to change."

Biggs added that many women are becoming self-employed because it is so difficult to get into site work.

"Although this gives them more control over their everyday lives, women want to improve their skills without having to run a business at the same time," she said. "They haven't got the time to sort out accounts, deal with staff and buy materials, but they feel it is the only way to get into construction."