Laing O’Rourke Women in Leadership Day
L6 STEM enthusiasts were given the opportunity to learn about the exciting career prospects for women in construction in October, through the eyes of the major global construction company, Laing O’Rourke. Read the report from Emily (L6) below.
The day began over pastries and hot chocolate with introductions from a senior panel of women in Laing O’Rourke’s European hub. Icebreakers unearthed the stereotypes being challenged at the conference and gelled the group of students from over three Oxford sixth forms.
The group then got to try our hands at designing state-of-the-art hotels, hospitals and schools, each with their own design briefs, budgets and time scales and each with over ten different subcategories where multiple factors had to be considered.
Mrs Rachel Thanassoulis, Deputy Head at Headington Rye Oxford, said: “This was a lot of fun (essentially like a big and more realistic game of Top Trumps) and more importantly gave us an insight into the complexity that goes into selecting, sourcing and building the key infrastructure propping up our society today. It also tested our teamwork and presentation skills.”
Each group completed its own project, helped out by the circulating Laing O’Rourke experts, and then presented it to a panel of judges before lunch.
After lunch, the visitors had a site tour of the nearby Ellison Institute, a huge research facility being built by Laing O’Rourke and their subcontractors in Oxfordshire. At this stage, they are completing the groundworks and we got to see everything, from the piledrivers to how they have to protect specific trees and watercourses running across the site.
The girls found it particularly inspiring to meet the site managers, all of whom were women who had come onto the project after completing engineering degrees or apprenticeships.
After returning from the site, visitors got to interview a panel of some of the most senior women in the company on everything from career paths to workplace safety and mental health support.
Laing O’Rourke aims to reach a 50/50 gender split in its employees by 2033. This is in response to the need to improve gender diversity in construction as whole, as it currently sits with only 12.5 per cent female employees across the industry.
It was eye opening to learn about and directly see the need for gender diversity in construction. Moreover, it was inspirational to get to meet the women working on site and in the European hub who are passionate about what they do.
It was also a great day out and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the trip!
What did you learn from the day?
‘Say ‘yes’ to every opportunity that comes your way; make and use connections; be ambitious and don’t be scared to fail.’ (Chloe)
‘Women can have space in a highly male-dominated sector; construction has great social impact; you don’t necessarily need to be good at Maths to work in construction; apprenticeships are an alternative to university’ (Neina)
‘Your career isn’t going to be linear and continuous, in most cases its constantly changing. Taking any opportunity presented is vital. There’s more to construction than literally just building sites, there’s a whole process behind it with a variety of people needed with a long list of experiences and skills.’ (Rhiannon)
‘I learnt that careers can be squiggly but eventually we will find the career right for us!’ (Claudia)
