Login
iscover
With women making up only 15 per cent of the Australian construction workforce, the Housing Industry Association said the sector must go beyond “business-as-usual” approaches to address its critical worker shortages.
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has called on the construction sector to commit to a “comprehensive and substantive plan” that will encourage more women to consider careers in construction.
Despite the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing that over 50 per cent of the Australian population is female, the HIA noted that women currently make up only 15 per cent of the construction workforce.
HIA managing director, Jocelyn Martin, said that while it is “pleasing” to see the number of women in construction increase in the past few years, it is still “far lower than we would like to see”.
To build the volume of housing Australia needs, the HIA estimated that the construction sector needs an additional 83,000 trades immediately.
The number of tradies needed does not include equally short-supplied key professional roles such as designers, certifiers, planners, engineers and construction/project managers.
For this reason, Martin emphasised that “business-as-usual approaches to addressing these critical shortages won’t cut it”.
Martin partially attributed the lack of women in construction to the largely superficial efforts the sector has made to increase the number of female workers.
“Too often we continue to see announcements to increase the number of women in construction, which involve donning pink hi-vis’, walking around a building site and then talking about more site toilets,” Martin remarked.
She said the construction sector needed to broadly improve its operations processes and work culture to attract not just women, but more men to pick up a trade.
“We also cannot ignore the industry itself needs to be mature and be better educated, with more family-friendly work hours, diversity of roles, where possible flexible working, and of course clean facilities for all employees, not just women,” Martin said.
“Construction is competing for skilled workers with industries that are well advanced in offering these benefits,” she added.
The HIA stated that a comprehensive plan to attract more women must include measures such as:
- Implementing a widespread, long-term funded program in primary schools nationwide to promote careers in construction to young women.
- Engaging industry-leading women ambassadors to discuss their experiences.
- Improving apprentice retention through industry-based mentoring programs.
- Funding “try a trade” and “build ready” programs.
- Developing specific campaigns which target mature age workers waiting to change careers or who want to return to the workforce after an absence.
- Offering group training organisation (GTO) funding which educates employers on contemporary family-friendly employment practices.
Martin said that the HIA provides dedicated networks and resources for women through its Building Women Program, and also promotes and supports career pathways for new entrants to the construction sector through its BuildHer Future program.
“International Women’s Day offers an important opportunity for the construction industry, employers and governments to consider new and innovative ways to promote the breadth of careers available and the limitless career prospects that exist in the construction industry,” concluded Martin.
You are not authorised to post comments.
Comments will undergo moderation before they get published.