Director encourages female students to consider entering the construction industry

Our Maintenance Director Hollie Earley urged female students to consider careers in the construction industry during an inspiring International Women’s Day conference.

The conference, held at Meols Cops High School in Southport, saw women leaders in their fields in sectors ranging from politics to retail give powerful addresses and share their experiences to a captivated audience of female Year 10 students.

And during her talk entitled ‘Challenging Stereotypes’ Hollie urged the students present to think about following in her footsteps and carve out a rewarding career in construction with just 14% of women in the sector making up the workforce.

She stressed that women have always played a crucial role in construction, citing the key contributions women made to the design and construction of Waterloo Bridge built between 1937 and 1945 as an example.

Sterling employs people strictly on ability and interest in a role rather than on gender and age grounds and Hollie spoke proudly of “the supportive network” and the wide-ranging roles women have here – these range from site management to purchase ledger clerk.

Hollie also took part in Q&A panel session and was impressed with the questioning from the students.

She said: “It was such an inspirational day learning from the other women present. I told the students that they should consider a job in construction and how I love the fast pace of it. No two days are the same.”

The other speakers were: Amy Metcalfe -Senior Network Manager of The Girls’ Network; Michelle Dow – MD at All About Stem; former MEP Theresa Griffin; Raina Heverin - Founder and MD at ReCulture and Co-Founder at Supplywell and Emma Summerfield – Senior Product Manager at Sainsbury’s.