Supporting International Women’s Day

Posted 17/03/2020

To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, Higgins invited representatives from Women into Construction and Newham Workplace to visit its site, Woolwich Reach, E16 and see the wealth of career opportunities available to women in the construction industry.

As a silver member of Women into Construction and also part of the Moving on Up Programme, Higgins is committed to supporting and promoting gender equality in construction and providing support to women wishing to work in the industry.

The afternoon was spent hearing from the Higgins team about how they have progressed their careers in the industry before having a tour of the Woolwich Reach site to see the different phases of construction and variety of roles available.

One Newham Workplace representative, Kery said, “I found it very eye opening, and it has opened my mind to looking at the opportunities in the construction industry which I may not have thought to consider before.”

Amy Ross, Head of Social Value added, “As a company we are extremely committed to working with organisations such as Women into Construction and Newham Workplace to help reduce the skills gap and create a more gender-equally workforce. By showing highly motivated, trained women first-hand the range of career opportunities available in the industry, we hope this will work towards attracting more women into the sector.”

As part of Higgins commitment to Women into Construction, the company is also offering work placements to women to enable access to opportunities and build up their experience, promote all vacancies with Women into Construction and organize community based awareness events to attract women into the sector.

Currently, women only represent 14% of the entire UK construction workforce, with just 1.2% of those in trade roles being women.

At Woolwich Reach Higgins is building 75 affordable homes, one, two and three bedroom apartments, of which 28 will be London Living Rent homes and 47 shared ownership, and commercial space overlooking the River Thames and next to Royal Victoria Gardens for Notting Hill Genesis.