Our third Careers Speaker of the term, Managing Director of Sizebreed Group, Darren Size, brought with him two female colleagues to help him to encourage our young women to consider the construction industry for a career. Mr Size explained that he wanted to come and talk to St Augustine’s Priory girls because he is proud of the industry they work in, because his company is keen to encourage more women to work in construction and because he has two young daughters at St Augustine’s Priory for whom he would like to see these opportunities available in the future.
Sizebreed group builds, maintains and refurbishes houses, working for some of the richest people in the world. To give the girls an idea of how detailed the job is, he showed them examples of custom flooring they have installed, from timber to glass and even antique floors which have been removed, restored and reinstalled in a new building. The company also runs a maintenance business so that they can stay with their customers even when the construction work is complete, creating repeat business through customer service.
The girls were wowed by photos of houses Sizebreed have built, and Mr Size noted that one of the great things about his job is that he can literally show people what he does for a living. He told the girls that roughly 10% of jobs in the UK are in construction and that with the growth forecast, they don’t have enough young people or women in the industry yet.
So if any of our girls are sold on diving into construction, how would they accomplish this? Our guest speakers went through the different career pathways with the girls, suggesting that you can join a company when you leave school and complete a degree over five years, which would mean that you have lots of experience in the industry when you graduate. Alternatively, there are graduate schemes – but what Mr Size emphasised is that there is virtually no job in construction our girls can’t do and that “any job in construction is open to you”. He talked the girls through the different aspects of construction they could enter and what they involve; architecture, civil engineering, construction management, quality surveying, landscape designing, plumbing… the list goes on!
Last academic year, Careers Speaker Barbara Marino spoke about ‘The Engineering Gap’ and the fact that only 8% of engineers in the UK are female. Mr Size reiterated this point, telling the girls that in some cases companies will recruit women and create jobs where they can; our girls are in a fantastic position with an exciting range of possibilities in their futures.
Categories: Senior Sixth Form Whole School