The second Women into Construction Employment Programme in the North East ended with an amazing celebration event just before Christmas.

Women into Construction, along with the project partners Equans, Morgan Sindall infrastructure, Jewsons, Countryside Partnerships, Red Engineering & Places for People, were hosted by the training provider Gateshead College at their Quarry field Campus. It was a wonderful opportunity to reflect and celebrate the achievements of the women and the partners. We were lucky to be joined by Chris Toon, Deputy Principal, who helped hand out the certificates to the women and Chelsea Brogan Kirchner, Learner Recruitment and Progression Officer who assisted with the training element of the programme and gave a very moving and inspiring speech.

The programme was designed to support women in the North East looking to explore a career within construction. The programme launched with an information event on 27^th September at Newcastle Library. 10 women attended and heard from the college and employers about their offering for the programme. Also, in attendance where programme alumni, Cheryl Spybey from Morgan Sindall and Taya Williams from Red Engineering, both of whom were members of the first cohort and who are now employed by their work placement employers. Both spoke passionately about the programme.

Following the event six women were selected for the programme. The timetable started with construction-related training and employability skills delivered by Women into Construction and Gateshead College. The women were given L1 Health & Safety training plus CSCS card provision as well as exposure to hard skills such as bricklaying and joinery while WiC delivered online workshops. The workshops were designed to provide the women with an introduction to construction and the array of different roles within it, confidence and resilience building, CV writing, interview skills and how to use social media, especially LinkedIn, to help create a professional profile. During this period, the women also attended a site visit at the Freight Village project which was kindly facilitated by Countryside Partnerships and gave the women an insight into a live site.

The women completed the two-week training and were matched via a speed interview event with an employer to undertake their two-week work placements with companies offering exposure to site management, engineering, joinery and customer service. Following the work placements, the women were given information on how to apply for jobs with the placement companies and to date two women have gained employment!

A huge thank you to the programme partners – Gateshead College for their support in delivering their amazing training, the employers for inspiring the women and of course the women themselves, who showed courage, determination, and tenacity. WiC will continue to support the women with applying for job opportunities as they embark on their Journey into Construction.