Female workers an untapped resource

BCITO identifies education as key to overcoming challenges on both sides of the fence

While the proportion of women working in the construction sector has increased over the past ten years, data shows they are still heavily under-represented on building sites across New Zealand.

A PWC report, Valuing the role of construction in the New Zealand economy, stated that female employment in the core construction sector has grown at a faster rate than for males in the past decade, which has caused the ratio of male to female workers to fall from 6.3:1 in 2005 to 5.9:1 in 2015.

That growth has seen 5,887 female workers join the construction sector in the ten years to March 2015 – equivalent to a 45% increase.

Perhaps surprisingly, figures from the past two years show that mean hourly earnings in core construction for females are higher than for males and, in 2015, women earned an average of $27.96 per hour compared to the industry median of $22.75.

However, when translated to mean weekly earnings, males earned more than their female equivalents – indicating that men in construction work more hours than women, which could be attributed to more women working in part-time or support roles.

This is supported by data published by BCITO in its Workforce Development Plans, showing the number of female support staff working in trades far outweighs the number of trade-qualified females.

BCITO chief executive Warwick Quinn acknowledged that positive progress has been made, but said that women are still under-represented in construction.

“For trades under BCITO’s coverage, the number of female apprentices increased by 22% from the beginning of 2014 to the end of 2015, but the total percentage of female apprentices is a very small portion, at around 2%.”

“Attracting women into the trades is

a real opportunity; at the moment, it is an untapped market. We do, however, have a couple of challenges in this space: firstly, to convince them that a career in construction is a genuine option,” said Mr Quinn.

“The second challenge is having an industry that is happy to employ women. We have many firms that would love to, but we also still have a fair few that are less enthusiastic and for all the wrong reasons.

“We need to educate and change these attitudes. You just have to look at other employers, such as the NZ Police,

which have made a concerted effort to attract more women and been very successful.”

Future planning

BCITO’s Workforce Development Plans are aimed at a number of trades, including carpentry, all of which were developed alongside extensive industry consultation.

Mr Quinn said that, based on the feedback they received, the next stage is to develop tactics for each sector that are relevant to the work currently being undertaken, with key projects resulting from the workforce development plan including:

• Establishing a BCITO virtual schools academy for prospective apprentices.
• Creating and implementing a marketing plan for each sector to change perceptions.
• Investigating channels into industry and responding to barriers.
• Rolling out mentoring programmes for apprentices and employers.
• Celebrating and promoting industry success.
• Creating digital tools for employers, including a best practice toolkit and information hub.
• Raising the perceived value of qualified tradespeople.

“We also have a couple of specific strategies focused on the long-term work predictions and skill demands in the ‘Golden Triangle’ (Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga), as well as more flexible learning packages to better align with how businesses are structured,” he said.