Crossrail and Women into Construction join forces

Crossrail and its supply chain have joined forces with Women into Construction to provide further work experience and employment opportunities.

To mark the collaboration, Rail Minister Claire Perry met with a new generation of female construction workers at Crossrail’s Farringdon station.

Ms Perry said the partnership sent a “clear signal” that now is the ideal time for women to seek a career within the “growing and exciting”construction industry. She commented: “ I hope that many of the positive role models I have met today can inspire the next generation of female engineers and construction workers.

“Crossrail is bringing huge economic benefits, creating a trained construction workforce which can help deliver the infrastructure projects of the future. With government investment in schemes such as HS2, opportunities in construction will continue to grow.”

Women into Construction was originally created as part of the employment strategy of London 2012 and are an independent, not-for-profit group. It seeks to recruit women into all parts of construction; from entry level trades roles through to professional construction placements. The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) currently funds the scheme.

The organisation have relocated to office space provided free of charge at Crossrail’s headquarters in Canary Wharf. It is envisaged that this move will provide an opportunity for closer collaboration between Women into Construction and Crossrail’s own employability and education teams that include the job brokerage service, which works in partnership with JobCentre Plus and Young Crossrail.

Kath Moore, Managing Director, Women into Construction, said: “Our partnership with Crossrail gives Women into Construction a unique opportunity to work directly with both Crossrail and their supply chain and help to address the current skills-gaps in construction as we seek to attract and retain far greater numbers of women into the industry.”

Hosted by Morgan Sindall, Crossrail’s first Women into Construction event took place at the Pudding Mill Lane site and provided work placements in Morgan Sindall’s engineering, health and safety and commercial teams. Further work placements have since been secured with other Crossrail principal contractors including Dragados-Sisk and Alstom-TSO-Costain.

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) forecasts that more than 220,000 construction jobs are set to be created over the next five years. With women making up half of the working population of the UK, but only 11% of the construction workforce, employing more women into the industry is a major strategy to help reduce the skills gap.

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