Actis regional sales director Jemma Harris and sales manager Melanie Porter recently attended an event in Yorkshire to inspire young people to choose construction careers
Jemma Harris and Melanie Porter were among seventy organisations taking part in an initiative aimed at educating, developing and upskilling the next generation in Yorkshire to address the skills shortage and encourage young people into construction careers.
The annual Foundations Live 2022 aimed to inspire people from as young as four to adults looking at retraining to explore opportunities within the construction sector.
Inspiring young people and women to pursue careers in a male-dominated industry
Harris, a Women in Construction ambassador, and Porter are among several Actis colleagues passionate about inspiring young people and women, in particular, to pursue a career in a currently male-dominated profession.
Harris has given inspirational talks in schools sharing her own career path working in two very traditionally ‘macho’ environments – the Royal Navy, where she worked as a weapons engineer and construction.
Whilst specification manager Amaret Chahal co-wrote the latest Actis CPD material. Chahal explains: “I enjoy the fact that as a young woman of colour, I have the opportunity to share my knowledge and technical understanding on all types of specifications, both simple and complex. The Actis team in the north is all-female, and I love that we are women working in a demanding industry which is traditionally male-dominated.”
Harris discusses the joys of working in construction at Foundations Live 2022
The Foundations Live event is captured on video. In it, she explains: “In the construction industry, it’s definitely not boring. You get to meet various different people on a daily basis. No day is the same. One day you could be on a building site; the next day, you could be standing in front of an architect doing a CPD presentation.”
Foundations Live 2022 was organised by construction firm Hobson and Porter and supported by Jewson, the Construction Industry Training Board and agricultural college Bishop Burton College.Â
