Women In Construction and Engineering Awards Summit
Today, I’m sharing the second post about the Women In Construction and Engineering Awards Summit. I’ve split the 6 discussions into 3 posts for manageable reading.
Follow along and share your thoughts in the comments.
We started with a welcome address by David Savage , Partner at Charles Russell Speechlys and long-time WICE awards collaborator, who delivered a welcome address on Social Mobility, an often-overlooked area in achieving Equity (>E< in EDI).
Despite the lack of progress shown in published metrics around Social Mobility, David identified apprenticeships as the tool that could both facilitate Social Mobility and shift leadership mindset. And suggested that companies should think of them as “Hiring for the future, not today”.
My favourite quote of his, as the audience may have noticed, was “Talent is everywhere, opportunity has not always been there” summing up the role of EDI :to make opportunities available to the widest pool of talent."
Following the opening address, my role as moderator commenced and with a discussion around Technology with Shweta Thakur, Senior PM at Kier. Shweta not only has a passion for technology, she also has front row seats to the digitalization process our industry still struggles with. (My words, not hers)
We discussed how technology might hold the key to unlock the changes required to level the playing field for a wider pool of talent and how standardization, and upfront planning could support sustainability through efficiency and implementation of Circular Economy principles in order to deliver policy targets.
During a highly interactive discussion, the audience identified opportunities such as Open-Source Resources for projects with limited funds to implement infrastructural changes and small digital innovations to ease administrative processes.
There was also an acknowledgement of the responsibility that companies developing technology have to ensure that the tools they create incorporate the necessary considerations to ensure that the user experience can be tailored to suit the individual needs rather than the other way round.
It was a very exciting session and having the discussion in a room where so many different roles were represented brought an impressive level of insight.
This is why as well as the speakers and, of course, organisers of the Women In Construction and Engineering Awards Summit., I would like to thank all of those who contributed and enriched the discussion.