Womens Career Development in Construction and the Role of Training and Development

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Womens Career Development in Construction and
the Role of Training and Development
Gayani Elvitigala, Dr Dilanthi Amaratunga
Dr Richard Haigh Research Institute for the
Built and Human environment The University of
Salford BEECON 2006
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Presentation Layout

• Introduction and Background
• Aim of the study
• Training and development in construction
• Role of training and development and womens
  career
• Summary
• Way forward

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Introduction and Background

• Construction is one of the skills shortage
  industry (EOC, 2004 )
• a chronic shortage of skilled workers in
  Construction Industry" (Flood ,2004)
• a correlation between sector-specific skills
  shortages and under-representation of women in
  these sectors (EOC ,2004)
• women are only 203,000 as 10 from total
  employees in construction industry - (Labour
  Force Survey Spring, 2004)
• women were found to have progressed an average
  of one hierarchal level behind their male peers
  of similar age and experience ( Dainty et
  al,2000)

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Aim of the Study

• Aim
• Review of the literature on the role of training
  and development on womens career in construction

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Training and development in construction

• Training is defined as "all the various
  processes by which an individual develops the
  competencies required for employment-related
  tasks" (OECD, 1997)
• The proportion of employers providing off-the-job
  training in 2002 in construction was relatively
  high 64. (CITB,2003)
• Training for health and safety purposes is one of
  the most widespread types of training provided
  across all sectors, including construction and
  training in new technology and management is
  lower in construction than in other industries (
  survey of learning and training at work ,2002)

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• New training and development targets (CITB ,2002)
• recruitment targets for new entrants into
  industry-approved schemes
• increased retention of CITB Managing Agency
  trainees
• recruitment of a target number of female and
  ethnic minority trainees. Specific aims included
• Dedicating resources to recruit 41,000 new
  entrants into industry-approved training schemes.
• Improving the recruitment of female and ethnic
  minority trainees by 10 per cent per annum.

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Role of training and development in construction
and womens career

• obtaining training and work experience necessary
  as a route of entry for women into construction
  (Byrne et al,2005)
• women in full-time jobs tend to receive less
  training than their mail counterparts
  (Powell,1998)
• there is attitude had persisted through training
  into the workplace, where they had been expected
  to undertake clerical and support duties and had
  to fight to be given technician training and work
  (Fielden et al,2000)

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• The significance of training for both development
  and confidence-building purposes has been noted
  as a difficulty women often face when trying to
  gain training they want (Healy and Kraithman,
  1996)
• lack of training is seen as helping to prevent
  entry into the management ranks in many
  organisations (and to keep women at the lower
  levels within management) (Steven,2000)

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Summary

• Influences of adequate training programmes
  towards career development of women
• Lack of successful initiatives for training and
  development
• Women are seeking specific training programs in
  order to develop their career which are necessary
  for their career development
• lack of training as a factor preventing entry of
  women into the management ranks in many
  organisations
• It is necessary to develop effective and adequate
  training programmes at both organisational and
  regional levels to pursue womens career
  development in the field of construction

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Way forward

• Identify further barriers face by the women in
  obtaining necessary training
• Explore details of any female specific training
  programmes in construction industry
• What lessens can be learnt from other sectors in
  training development and management for
  construction industry

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• Acknowledgments
• Authors acknowledge the assistance received from
  European Social Funds towards the work reported
  in this presentation

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• Thank you