Twenty young women have been welcomed to an Enterprise Ireland event to address the skills gap and lack of awareness currently challenging the UK construction sector.

Held at the Embassy of Ireland, 'She Built That' was created to break the stereotypes in today's construction industry and to showcase the diverse range of career paths available.

Speaking at the event, Enterprise Ireland Construction Market Advisor, Anne Corr, said: "Many people think careers in construction are limited to working on-site in hard hats and steel-toe boots. With She Built That, we wanted to highlight that there is so much more in the sector for young people to consider – be it interior fit-out, offsite construction, planning or design, to name but a few."

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The evening opened with welcome addresses from Counsellor for Economic and Trade Affairs, Páraig Hennessy, and Enterprise Ireland UK Manager, Deirdre McPartlin, before moving onto a panel discussion exploring the varied career paths available in construction.

The Enterprise Ireland panel convened leading talents from the UK construction sector together, including Eilis McShane, Façade Specialist; Jacqui O'Donovan, Managing Director at O'Donovan Waste; Alison Nicholl, Head of Constructing Excellence; and Kate McMillan, Development Consultant.

Nuala Forsey, Facilitator and Coach at Being The Change, closed the session with an inspirational speech before attendees had the chance to network and discuss the ideas raised during a networking session.

Enterprise Ireland works with a range of Irish construction client companies in the UK market which enjoy success and create jobs country-wide. Several of these companies, such as ESS Modular, Castlebrook and Techcrete also attended She Built That, and kindly offered work experience opportunities to candidates at the event, as well as tours of current and completed projects, and visits to their factories.

(CM/JG)