JIVE - Creating Change for Women & Girls in Science, Engineering, Construction and Technology

Case Study - AMEC Work Shadowing

What does go on a building site? What do all those men in hard hats do all day? And why are they nearly all men? Veronica Benson spent two days work shadowing a project manager at AMEC to try and find out the answers.

"As a member of the Institute of Careers Guidance, I had heard about the ICG scheme to improve understanding amongst careers professionals about what engineers do and decided this would be a great opportunity for me to gain an insight into a very different work environment.

The project I was invited to visit involved the stabilising of a slope on a road along the bank of the River Severn near the famous Ironbridge in Telford between the village and the museum. The project will run until June 2007 and involves placing 140 rotary bored cast piles into the ground to support the road. Telford Council is funding the project through money from the European Development Fund. The Design & Project Services Department of AMEC Consulting Engineers took charge of this project in mid-August and the Project Manager, Adam Rawling, kindly volunteered to let me shadow him for a couple of days in September to see what was involved."

First Impressions

"The team must have been rather bemused at the sight of me arriving at the building site by taxi with my suitcase (having just flown in from New York that morning). Struggling across the building site with my wheelie bag, I had already broken several safety rules. However, I was soon kitted out appropriately and people who know me as the rather ‘girlie’ person I am will be amused at the idea of me in hard hat, safety jacket, goggles and Wellington boots which were to be my uniform for the next two days.

Interestingly, the first person Adam introduced me to was a woman. Charlotte, a recent graduate in business studies, works in AMEC’s procurement department. Adam and Charlotte soon resumed their meeting to discuss price comparisons and arrangements for on-site cleaning and security services (the site had been broken into the evening before), orders for concrete, site performance reports for subcontractors, staff hours, recycling points, diversion signs and all other manner of stuff which needs to be put in place before you can even start getting a building project underway. Adam took the opportunity to explain, very clearly for my benefit using lots of diagrams, the plans for reinforcing the wall between the road and the riverbank.

I took the opportunity to find out why Charlotte started working at AMEC. By chance, her optional sandwich year at university included a placement at AMEC. She would never have considered a career in procurement in the construction industry but this opportunity opened her eyes to a whole new area. She enjoys her job working for AMEC, she gets to go out on site and encounters no problems with being one of the few females in this industry. When she can, she visits schools to tell young people about what she does and encourages them to consider a career in construction. She is clearly learning a lot and seemed to enjoy being away from the usual office environment - as was I.

Later that day I met another woman - Carly. Through her administrative job in Telford Council she is based on site ensuring the money spent complies with European Development Fund criteria. At school she would never have considered a career in construction. She loves being based on site and says she might have considered studying civil engineering if she had been aware of opportunities for careers in this area while at school."

Safety & Protection First

"The construction industry is changing. Years of negative press about the number of accidents on building sites has meant that construction companies now make safety their most important concern. In addition, environmental legislation requires the industry to comply with strict standards with regard to contamination and protection of the area around building sites. Adam explained that there is a need for behavioural and cultural changes within the industry. AMEC’s mission statement reflects its commitment to ‘deliver the project within budget, on programme and to the full satisfaction of the client whilst minimising the environmental impact of our work and aiming for zero accidents’.

As Project Manager, Adam called a site induction meeting of the whole team which gave me an excellent opportunity to find out more about how the project would progress and the roles of the members of the team. The on-site team usually comprises a project engineer, site engineer, site manager and building staff including teams of contract workers. Sites are also visited by clients, the contracts director, safety and environmental advisers.

The induction included background to the project and timescale and an explanation of the rules related to H&S and environmental issues. These included awareness of the need to: wear protective clothing and helmets at all times on site; observe manual handling rules; avoid ‘slips, trips and falls’; minimise noise; conserve energy; redirect spillage; only operate vehicles/machinery with permits; identify trained first aiders; record accidents and report any misdemeanours or safety concerns. Near- miss accidents would be viewed as learning events, confidentiality would be preserved for anyone voicing any concerns and anyone found putting themselves or someone else at risk would be given a yellow card for a first offence, a red card for a second offence and finally be banned from the site. Staff needed to sign task statements and risk assessments prior to carrying out any activities.

We also learned that Japanese Knotweed was contaminating the earth being excavated so this earth would need to be taken to a special site. In addition, the Council were trying to protect great crested newts in the area so a fence had been erected all around the site. If any hibernating newts were found on site it would be illegal to remove them and work would have to be stopped. In addition, slowworms lived in the area so traps were laid every evening and each morning any slowworms found were removed from the site to safety.

I had no idea so much was involved in running a building project – and all this before the project even gets started! I was very impressed about the importance placed on protection of staff and the environment but I also now understood why building projects seem to take so long."

Site Tour

"A tour of the site gave me an opportunity to see the project in action and try and make sense of the diagrams. The river setting was lovely and it was great to be outside. The contrast from sitting in an office meant it didn’t feel like work. I learnt about gabion baskets, piling, inclinometers, theodolites, peg bashing and how to lay a concrete floor – it was a whole different world.

A project manager makes regular site tours and I soon learned why. Hikers were found attempting to wander through the site and had to be re-directed out, members of staff had to be reminded to wear their protective clothing, a potential leak from a pump had to be quickly averted to prevent contamination.

We witnessed negotiations taking place between the site manager and contractors about areas of responsibility and methods of carrying out work. I learned that the site manager needs great diplomacy in dealing with different teams of contract workers who each have their own supervisor and clear ideas of their responsibilities. Now I understood why there seemed to be so much hanging around on building sites. If they are not having environmental and H&S checks, teams are clarifying areas of responsibility and negotiating the best methods of proceeding at each stage of the building process.

The ability to work well as part of a team is essential as a project cannot progress without the manager being able to communicate clear instructions and agree areas of responsibility throughout the project."

Becoming a Civil Engineer

"As is often the case, it was the fact that Adam’s father had been a civil engineer that led him to the profession. He has a degree in civil engineering and recently acquired chartered status. He explained that you need to spend one year on site and acquire four years of contract and design work to gain chartered status. He works long hours when on-site and can end up traveling long distances. Much time is spent in meetings discussing plans and schedules, overseeing progress of the works and liaising closely with the site manager to ensure the project is delivered on time and to budget.

Civil engineers tend to follow either the design route (office-based) or the contracts/project management route (site-based). More female civil engineers go into design and this may be due to more favourable hours and the problem of traveling long distances when based on site.

Trevor is also a civil engineer and was acting as site engineer while I was there. Employed by an agency, he had made the decision not to progress to a project management role in favour of well-paid contract work. He explained his role as fitting all the pieces of the jigsaw together by studying maps of the area, ensuring the plans match the site and constantly checking markers to make sure that lines are straight and holes are dug where they should be. Three quarters of his time is spent checking and revising drawings. Mistakes can be costly if the wrong quantities of materials are ordered and dangerous if buildings are constructed based on incorrect measurements. The site engineer used to be the one blamed for delays but now the H&S and environmental inspectors take the flak.

While structural, mechanical and electrical engineers are brought in on development projects, civil engineers usually oversee the whole of a project. University courses provide an overview of the profession and the placement year is essential as a great deal is learnt on the job. A civil engineer does need to be reasonably good at maths (or geometry more specifically) to understand the technical side of the role but maths in the context of engineering is more interesting and should not put people off considering a career in this area. Attention to detail and communication skills are equally important. I had not appreciated how much of the job is about working with people. So much time is spent meeting and negotiating with other players so good team-working skills are essential."

Conclusions

"I was surprised at how much I learnt in my two days on site and would strongly recommend work shadowing to anyone interested in finding out about a particular field. This does, of course, need the cooperation of supportive and patient employers.

While a careers adviser’s role is to provide clients with impartial careers guidance, we also have a responsibility to make clients aware of all the options open to them and this can only be gained through greater knowledge and understanding of the range of career opportunities available. I do believe careers advisers would benefit from exposure to different job sectors to develop their understanding of the range of career choices and would like to see careers guidance courses including more time spent learning about different industry sectors with site visits and work shadowing opportunities built in.

A two-day work shadowing placement gives enough insight into a role to give a careers adviser greater confidence in discussing career options in that area. We cannot learn about all industries so some degree of specialism is necessary. We know there are skills shortages in SECT and specialist careers advisers in these areas might go some way towards encouraging more young people to consider SECT careers as an option.

Within construction – more work is needed to widen the pool of talent and raise awareness amongst young people – particularly girls – about the opportunities within this industry. A site visit or work experience may open doors to completely new career paths for some and both Charlotte’s and Carly’s experiences demonstrate this. Employer school visits by role models like Charlotte can also help to challenge young people’s assumptions about jobs, working environments and their own career interests."