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Green Infrastructure Lab
Innovation for Greener Cities
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Social Procurement CoP for the Construction Industry -
24 January 2024
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World-first PhD program to support building industry reform
The Construction Industry Doctorate Program facilitates targeted applied research.
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(gentle upbeat music)
- A lot of people ask me why I chose construction.
They expected me to say,
"Oh, I have family in construction,"
or "I've had some sort of role model
that was in construction."
But that's not really the case for me.
It was more just me wanting to challenge myself.
I've always been very interested in design and architecture,
except that wasn't hands on enough for me.
So just sitting in an office
every day doesn't really appeal to me.
I want to be out on site and I want to be learning.
I study a Bachelor
of Construction Project Management at UTS.
It's a very practical subject,
which is something that I absolutely love.
It's very hands on.
We get to go out onto site for some of our assignments.
So far, I've travelled to Cambodia to build a house.
I've travelled to Nepal to build a new farming product,
and I've got to go to China
to learn a little bit of Chinese.
In 2017, I co founded the UTS Women in Construction Society,
and one of the main reasons why I decided
to start the group was to encourage more females
to enter the construction industry.
When I was in year 12,
I had absolutely no idea
what construction project management was
or that it even existed.
We have networking events that happen twice a year
where industry panelist come in and speak to students.
We also have a lot of socializing events just
so all the females get
to know each other in different year groups
and really set up their network within the university.
- I've been working in construction now
for well over 20 years.
I actually graduated from UTS about 32 years ago.
And so I gradually, I built up my career.
I didn't know that I was gonna move
into construction straight away.
I guess you get success in projects
that then gives you the confidence
to move on to another project.
The industry of construction
to me is very exciting 'cause no two projects are the same.
- I think there's definitely a misconception
that construction is more geared towards males.
The techniques and skills you need for construction,
females aren't at any disadvantage.
- The era that we're in at the moment,
there's so many opportunities for women in
what I guess is seen
as being fairly male dominated fields in the past.
Diversity in the workplace is getting stronger and greater.
If you work hard and you're passionate,
that will just get you so far in the working world.
If you show those attributes and do
that while you're at uni studying,
you go into the workforce a much stronger person.
- UTS has many industry connections
with construction companies, and it was
through these connections that I was able
to secure a position at Mirvac where I am currently a cadet.
I thought that I was going to face a lot
of challenges and obstacles
because I was a female and especially a young female
just entering the construction industry with no experience.
My expectations have been completely flipped around.
Everyone that I work at here with Mirvac is
so encouraging and so supportive,
and they're giving me really,
really good tasks to help me develop all my skills.
I get to go out on site.
I get to manage subcontractors.
I get to manage deliveries and orders,
and it's really allowing me to grow
and learn so many new things.
- Theory will only take you so far.
Practical puts all of that into practice
and it makes all that theory relevant.
You learn quicker when you actually get on site
and see and figure out how construction works.
- I definitely think that there's a stereotype
of the construction industry
where if you're entering the industry,
you're pretty much going to be laying bricks
or doing something with a hammer,
and that's what I thought of when I was in year 12
when I thought of construction except
that is completely not true.
There are so many management positions available.
There's residential houses,
you can start your own business
and you can work on really large infrastructure projects
such as skyscrapers.
You can work on bridges.
You can work on rail networks.
There's so many different options.
Without construction, society would pretty much halt
because we're obviously a growing community
and a growing population,
so construction will always be needed.
UTS would like to thank the team at Mirvac for supporting our students and allowing us the opportunity to visit their construction site.
Copyright 2019 University of Technology Sydney
