We are so proud of all the women that took part in our first ever Women in Construction course. The three-week course provided an insight into some of the careers available in the construction industry as well as practical experience of groundworks and bricklaying. The course also included sessions on challenging perceptions of women in construction, understanding drawings, a one-day health and safety course.

To celebrate coming to the end of the course we invited along some special guests to hear first-hand from the women what they thought of the course and what they had learnt.

As well as learning about planning tasks and prepping for practical trades like bricklaying, slabbing and concreting, the women also learnt a lot more about themselves and what they can achieve. Emma talked about how the course had given her confidence to learn construction terminology and not let her dyslexia hold her back while Sharon went on to say “Being given this opportunity was great and the only regret I have is I wish I had it ten years ago!”

When it came to Sheryl’s turn to speak, she said “Because this was a women-only course, we all came together and we all uplifted and empowered each other. Some of us haven’t been in employment for a while and may have had our confidence knocked a little. But in this group we were all in the same boat and it really gave us a confidence boost.”

One of our special guests was MP for Birmingham Shabana Mahmood. She said, “I commend McDermotts for having the vision to run a course like this and for supporting these women. And for also recognising that having to buy safety shoes to participate might put women off applying for the course but McDermotts have done all they can to remove obstacles like this by buying shoes for participants.”

“To both McDermotts and their training partner, Salutem, hats off to you for organising this course. I look forward to seeing all these women thriving in whatever they choose to do next.”