The construction skills shortage has been affecting construction work up and down the UK over the past few years. More work than ever before is being planned and completed, with a huge percentage being housing to ease the current housing crisis. However, workers are in high demand and sites are short on numbers as the lack of skilled workers is still ongoing. Women can now be the answer to helping the current skills shortage.
For many years, the construction industry has been completely male based and women we rarely seen anywhere near a construction site. However, times are changing, and women are now being seen more and more across the construction industry and the stigma of it being a male based profession is quickly fading away.
Across all trades there is a need for skilled workers on building sites and domestic work. This offers up a perfect opportunity for anyone looking to get into a new career. The construction industry is a fantastic career path with great prospects and women should no longer shy away from it. Understandably, many women will be put off due to the stigma of it being completely male based and this quote taken from DevonLive sums up why many were avoiding it but now are seeing it as an opportunity.
“Wolf whistling,
There’s less of it now. But back in the day, it would be horrendous.
You used to have to go into the site manager’s office and there was a page three calendar on the wall. They’d be smoking their fags in the office and it used to be, like, ‘Really? I don’t have to be looking at that sat here talking to you’.
The other thing, being called ‘love’ on a site - don’t call me ‘love’.
It does still happen occasionally but from the older site guys not the new breed because they have had their perceptions changed a little bit maybe, and because the bigger construction companies have been thinking ‘we need to sort this out’.”
The newer generation of male construction workers have had their perceptions changed and now see women as equal on-site.
Here at Able Skills, we have seen a big change over the past three years with more and more women each week coming to our centre to get skills and qualifications to join the construction industry. Whether it be training as an Electrician, Plumber, Carpenter or even a Tiler, we are seeing more women choose the industry as a realistic career path.
We recently spoke to a current female training on our Plumbing and Gas Courses here at Able Skills. Jenny is now halfway through her gas training with us and from day one she said she has felt comfortable and not once an outcast. She has really enjoyed her course and is now looking forward to her new career as a Plumber and Gas Engineer. Jenny says ‘be brave’ when taking the plunge to a new career and not to fear anything.
Jenny during her Gas Training at Able Skills
If you’re a woman that wants to get into a trade but is worried about not being accepted then give it a go because you will be pleasantly surprised, with more and more women now joining the construction industry. For more information on our courses, please contact us on 01322 280 202.
Credit: (https://www.devonlive.com/news/business/women-answer-construction-industry-crisis-1892203#)