Helping Women Train and Work in Construction Trades
March 8th, 2023
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ShareCelebrating International Women’s Day in the best way – Brewers recently donated ProDec 10 Piece Starter Kits to Opportunities with Experience: Helping Women Train and Work in Construction Trades. The kits are perfect for anybody starting out as they contain all purpose brushes, roller kits, a roller tray, dust sheets and masking tape.
More about the initiative:
The latest project 'She can, you can, we can' is a female only, pop up, portable programme.
The programme aims to deliver a face to face, community based, 13-day interior decorating programme with embedded training, commercial work experience, accredited training in Health, Safety and Environment and the CITB CSCS Green Card.
It has been designed for a group of 6 women aged 19+ in various community locations in and around London and the South East. It will enable women to move into practical trades and have the skills to redecorate their own homes.
A huge part O-W-E play is empowering females to move into a male dominated industry. The CEO, Angela Steele is an experienced painter & decorator and has encountered most scenarios, enabling O-W-E to give the women a true reflection on construction, and to make a mark in changing modern day construction sites.
The role of the programme is to help women and others see trade skills possibilities as well as recognise their own skills, transferable skills, and abilities, then applying them with the powerfulness needed to move forward in their own journey.
Angela’s Journey:
“I received a lot of negativity from family and friends from the very beginning. Everyone told me that construction was not a job for a woman. I hated school because they wouldn’t listen and kept pushing me into a direction I didn’t want. All I wanted was to be a painter and decorator.
I loved studying painting and decorating at college and retail design management and lapped up everything. Both were so liberating. The journey was amazing and opened my world to new experiences. Before, I had mixed with a crowd whose ambitions were to stay at home and chill. Now I was learning about my craft and new possibilities…I was thriving!
I started teaching painting and decorating in 2006 and become a P&D assessor in 2010, two jobs I still do today. Opportunities With Experience C.I.C started in 2013 with the idea to offer practical trades, training and work experience to female trainees wanting to get into the construction industry.
I want to use the platform I have been given to reach more women, particularly women who feel disengaged. I have been given many lucky breaks and I want to do the same for others.
I was presented with the Highly Commended Award for Achiever of the Year at the Constructing Excellence Awards in 2016, which is an accolade I am extremely proud of.”
