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Case Study - Wates Construction
Leslie Peers, Area Training Manager at Wates Construction has been working with the JIVE project for a number of years and we know the company to be committed to promoting and recruiting women into the non-traditional areas of construction and to be very successful in this.
Following an employer focus group to evaluate JIVE training materials attended by Leslie, he decided it would be a very beneficial for Wates to have a focus group with their female trades apprentices, to evaluate their experiences at the company. This information would be used to inform future practice where Wates will be developing similar positive action schemes regarding women into construction in other geographical areas as Wates is a national company.
The aim of this focus group was to explore the experiences of the female craft apprentices at Wates Construction, and identify what the company does well and what improvements could be suggested
From a total of 8 female apprentices, 7 attended the focus group from Bradford, Newcastle and Manchester. The focus group was held at the Cedar Court Hotel in Bradford on 15th March 2007, from 10am to 3 pm.
From the focus group exercises, Wates emerged as an excellent employer in terms of work life balance, and accommodating the individual needs of the female apprentices.
Some comments:
“Good understanding about my children needing
dropping off”
“Good to start at 8.30”
Finally, the following quotes are extracted from the collage -work exercise and state how the women would like the men in the company to see them….
“Don’t judge, give us a chance” “We can do it!”
“Give us the respect” “Work with us as your equals”
“Don’t see us as weak” “We are the future”
Recent initiatives by Wates Construction include:
- Attending the JIVE training in Gender Equality Awareness,
- Leslie Peers has been trained as a Gender Champion.
- Attending JIVE Organisational Champion Training,
- Leslie participating in various focus groups with other employers to evaluate and feedback on our new training material
- JIVE has referred female trades women who are looking for employment to Leslie Peers (Wates have good links with Jeanette McMurdo, the curriculum co-ordinator of the women-only Let’s TWIST courses in Construction and Engineering at Bradford College)
- Working jointly with Wates at the Constructing Excellence events.
Wates also run hands-on, careers taster days in construction to attract young girls and women.