Women in Construction

A £10 million campaign to diversify the building industry was launched this month by the CITB (Construction Industry Training Board), backed by the Department for Education. Currently women make up 16% of the total UK construction workforce of two million people. How can the industry attract more girls to the trades and the wider world of construction, and what can be done to keep them there long-term? What’s the reality of working in such a male-dominated environment? And how might things change in the future? Tina Daheley speaks to Roma Agrawal, a structural engineer who worked on the Shard, Katie Kelleher, a former crane operator who now works as an Appointed Person at Select Plant Hire, Hattie Hasan, founder of Stopcocks Women Plumbers, Cristina Lanz Azcarate, Chair, London South East NAWIC (National Association of Women in Construction), Sarah Fenton, Partnerships Director Midlands and North, CITB, (Construction Industry Training Board) and Lynsey Davies, a plasterer who is now training to be a quantity surveyor. Presenter: Tina Daheley