17/07/2023

Bouygues UK Wins Award at the WiC Event 2023

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Bouygues UK has won the ‘Most Engaged Member South Award’ at the 2023 Women into Construction (WiC) Celebration Event for our work with them over the last year.

We have been working with WiC since 2018, providing support for several London boroughs and individuals. We are aware as a construction company that the ratio of females to males in the industry is very low which is why we want to raise aspirations and awareness through opening up more job opportunities for women. Through tailored training, we aim to provide women with the right skills to access careers in construction and consequently, diversify the workforce in the industry.

Often, the women that we work with, and support are struggling to find the right career for them or to move from working part-time to a more qualified, full-time role. Frequently, the reason they are facing these troubles is down to lack confidence or official credentials. We partnered with the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL College) through WiC’s Newham Work Experience initiative to change this.

During March and April this year, we offered five women two weeks of work placement within our site team at Hallsville Quarter through WiC’s Work Experience initiative in Newham. Over the course of the placement, Bouygues UK welcomed them in various roles such as Project Management, Business Admin, and Health & Safety. On the final day of the course, an awards ceremony was held on site to celebrate the women’s success and hand out certificates of completion to mark the end of the placements.

We were thrilled to learn that this has such a positive impact on the individuals we worked with when 83% of the trainees stated they were more confident in gaining employment in construction, but also general knowledge on the sector and 92% said they had a better understanding of the different roles within construction and the pathways to find them.

During 2021 and 2022,  our Flaxyard project in Peckham for Southwark Council has supported WiC with four of their pre-employment programmes, with career talks, mock interviews and work experiences.

Our Wornington Green project as been supporting WiC and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea through more pre-employment programmes for local residents. Since starting on site last year, we have delivered career talks, mock interviews, DIY workshop, CV preparation, site visit and work experience.

In June, local women came over to Wornington Green for a session, during which they met some of our female professionals in the career talks, as well as chatting with our Project Director, learning how to regrout and reseal tiles with our DIY workshop. The session also involved a site visit and guidance on how to write a good CV and prepare yourself for an interview.

It is through ensuring an equal access to opportunity for both men and women that the construction sector can truly progress.

Our partnership with WiC is crucial to us if we are to build a better future for our female employees. We look forward to continuing our work with WiC and more specifically to the follow up sessions with the women we supported previously whilst welcoming new individuals on their journey in learning more about the construction sector. Thanks to our dedication to the partnership, our work with WIC has been successful across our programmes. We have developed stronger, more collaborative relationships with our clients and their residents as a result these of past years and we hope in turn that our efforts have had a profound positive impact on the women we have supported so far.