More than one year after starting a business degree, Anita Broomhead (pictured) found herself more excited about working on a construction site as a traffic controller than she was about her studies.
Ms Broomhead, 28, from North Sydney, is in her fourth year as an apprentice carpenter working on high-rise developments including the Multiplex Quarter Quay Tower at Circular Quay.
“I was on a Multiplex job traffic-controlling while I was at uni and I was in absolute awe of how big it was. I never had considered that was something I could do, but it sparked the interest,” she said.
“I wanted to experience being a builder and working on high rises.” The NSW government will launch a program to support 3000 training places for women in trades to help boost female representation in construction, manufacturing, engineering, transport and logistics.
The Built For Women training program will be launched on Monday and will target women aged 16 to 24, female jobseekers, women at risk of unemployment and women receiving Centrelink benefits.
NSW Skills and Tertiary Education Minister Geoff Lee said the fee-free program would help boost the number of women on building sites.
Mr Lee said women represent 8.9 per cent of all learners in trades and just 2.1 per cent of all learners studying a trade in the building and construction industry.
“The Built For Women program is about attracting women to rewarding careers in trades industries that are experiencing skills shortages,” he Lee.
“There has never been a better time to re-skill or up-skill and take advantage of the employment opportunities arising from the NSW government’s record $107 billion infrastructure investment, which is creating hundreds of jobs.
