Schools Projects
WISH took the opportunity to attend the first Careers Fair at Haberdasher’s Askes’ Knights Academy on 18 November. The event was aimed at Year 11 students and was well attended by around 150 students. Five WISH members were there to cover the event, representing both private sector and housing associations and covering Operations, Law and Surveying between them.
There was a marked interest in Law on the day as well as Architecture. A small number of students were quite clear about their ambitions whilst most of them were looking for inspiration and more information to enable them to move towards making a choice.
|
 |
 |
25 February 2009 - WISH offers support to students at Ravensbourne Secondary School in Bromley, Kent.
Building on from the success of our inaugural presentation at Eltham Hill Technical College for Girls in May 2008, representatives from WISH took part in an event at Ravensbourne Secondary School in Bromley. This provided us with opportunity to speak to a number of year 10 and 11 students and to increase awareness of working in business sectors that are often perceived as being male-dominated.
WISH hosted an exhibition stand at the school's Careers Fair. Attendance included many students from other schools in the neighbouring areas. The WISH representatives shared their own experiences with the students, particularly about what attracted them into the sector, what study qualifications are usually necessary and how fulfilling and rewarding the work in the housing and construction sectors can be - all from a female perspective.
The WISH Board would like to thank everyone who helped us with this event, especially Rebecca Pelling (Pellings) who took the lead in organising WISH's participation, and also Ann Lander (Hyde Group), Bunmi Atta (Amicus Horizon), Sarah Isaac (ISG Jackson), Anne-Brit Karunaratne (United House) and Shade Abdul (David Miller Associates).
Please click here to read our media release about this event. |
|
|
22nd May 2008: The first presentation Session held at Eltham Hill Technical College for Girls!!
WISH are delighted to announce that the first pilot presentation of our Schools Project was held on Thursday 22nd May. The presentation took place at Eltham Hill Technical College for Girls. Two identical sessions were held, with 45 girls in each group, all in Year Nine having just chosen their GCSE subjects.
The presentation described the wide variety of careers open to girls in the Housing and Construction industry with each of the presenters giving details on how they got into the industry and what their job entails on a day to day basis.
The presentation took the following format: |
 |
|
 |
- Introduction
- DVD – Click here to view.
- Timeline Presentation - this was a visual and
spoken presentation explaining the
construction and delivery process from buying
a piece of land through to building a
development and managing the tenants after
handover. Click here to view the script from the presentation.
- Quiz
The session was a great success and all the WISH members thoroughly enjoyed themselves!
More importantly, the feedback from the school has been incredibly positive, please see below: |
|
Grateful thanks to Perrins Solicitors who funded the DVD.
|
|
|
|
 |
WHAT? WHY? HOW? WHEN?
WHAT?
A programme, initiated and delivered by WISH to raise awareness to girls and young women about the career opportunities offered in the social housing sector.
The programme will provide information on the wide variety of roles for women in the following areas:
- Client (Local Authority and RSL) – Development, Management and Maintenance
- Contractor and Housebuilder – Land and Construction
- Consultants – Surveying, Architecture, Engineering, Project Management, Environmental, Town Planning.
|
 |
|
WHY?
Although women make up 45 – 50% of the workforce in the UK – only 10% of those employed in the construction industry are women, and at a time when the industry is facing a massive skills shortage! Although numbers of women are increasing in the Social Housing Sector and Consultancy, the overall industry suffers from gender inequality and has been criticised by the Equal Opportunities Commission.
The programme recognises that factors exist that currently prevent women from considering a future career in the industry, namely:
- The image and culture of the industry
- The focus of the school curriculum on academic rather than vocational subjects
- The lack of resources in schools to provide appropriate vocational training
- The lack of awareness amongst careers advisors of the potential offered by the industry, both in terms of earnings and career development.
|
|
There currently exists several ‘initiatives’- eg Women Building London, Womens Education in Building (WEB) and Women and Manual Trades (WAMT) - to encourage women into the manual trades of the industry such as plumbing, carpentry and plastering but there seems little or no advice for women about the other, wider career opportunities in the construction sector – and, specifically social housing.
Information and support are crucial factors affecting career choice. A paper published by the RICS in 2006 regarding women in construction highlighted that education at an early age was the best way to encourage girls into the industry.
WISH is in a unique position to support this area because it is made up of women, not just employed in a variety roles – but also employed by different types of Employers from Private Consultancy to RSLs, Housebuilders and Contractors. |
 |
|
HOW?
Initially WISH are aiming to carry out a pilot project with a Local Authority in London to ascertain the level of interest within their girls’ schools and ensure the presentation and ‘pitch’ to the pupils is at the right level and, therefore, sustainable to be ‘rolled out’ in other locations.
London Borough of Greenwich has been approached and has given the idea a lot of support.
WISH has been put in touch with Eltham Hill School (for girls) and the following action plan is proposed:
An independent WISH generated Programme will be delivered which will comprise: |
|
- Presentation to Year 8 pupils (DVD presentation and Q & A session)
- Smaller interactive Sessions with those pupils who have taken an interest (possible involvement of ‘Planning the Greenwich Peninsula’)
- Possible work experience placements to be offered
- Possible future ‘mentoring’ of selected pupils once in Year 9.
Also WISH plan to support and be involved in the following:
- Taster Day (at Shooters Hill Campus)
- Building Game (existing ‘hands-on’ sessions within the Schools)
- Construction Careers Event (each May)
- Teacher Placements (encouraging teachers and careers advisors to find out more about Careers in Social Housing)
|
 |
|
WHEN?
- Building Game at St Ursulas School in November.
- Independent WISH Programme started with Eltham Hill School January 2008 onwards.
- Stand and staffing presence at the Construction Careers event in May 2008.
- Stand and staffing presence at the next all female ‘Taster Day’ at Shooters Hill Campus.
|
|
