Women are building a future in construction

The construction boom in the North-west is providing a surge in jobs for women reports a leading Manchester city centre recruitment company.

Core Talent, which provides recruitment solutions across construction, engineering and manufacturing as well as purchasing and supply chain, is showing the way in this trend.

Victoria Goodier heads the company’s construction division along with Priya Sirpal who manages permanent recruitment positions in the industry.

Goodier deals specifically with construction contractors and stated that, in the current climate – still busy in spite of the Carillion Group collapse – “it’s great to see a strong surge in female candidates especially in areas such as planning”.

Core Talent has made a record-breaking start to the year in its Construction division and Victoria Goodier is optimistic for the region’s industry in 2018 and beyond.

She said: “The construction industry is starting to shift its focus away from London and firmly back to the North-west as the Northern Powerhouse gains momentum.”

The company, which plans to build its turnover from £5m to £20m over the next three to five years and has clients across the UK, is seeing the upturn in construction reflected across all its sectors.

As a result, co-director David Nesbitt says the company plans to take on an extra 17 people to add to its current 28-strong workforce between now and March, 2019. The business is in its 10th year and was started by Nesbitt and fellow director Damian Diggles.

Core Talent’s success in the construction field is echoed by Sarah Beale, chief executive of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) in its 2017 – 2021 skills’ forecast. Here, she reported a proposed average 1.7% annual sector growth.

But, she warned of a shortfall in skills and labour if the industry wanted to keep up with demand. “As a sector, we need to be proactive, not reactive, to close the skills’ supply gap,” she reported.