We were delighted to help facilitate a football tournament for schoolgirls in North Yorkshire this week, as part of our commitment to challenging stereotypes and encouraging more girls to consider construction as a career path.
The event was organised by our Senior Business Development Manager, Jason Thompson, in partnership with TClarke, Milestone Infrastructure and Tilbury Douglas.
Hosted at Richmond School, the tournament was attended by over 125 people and featured six school teams – made up of Year 9 and 10 girls. The schools who competed were Richmond School, Bedale High School, Northallerton School, Risedale School, St Francis Xavier School and Wensleydale School.
Northallerton came away as the overall winners of the event, picking up the ‘Combating Industry Stereotypes Cup’. Richmond were the runners-up, while Risedale were awarded ‘Team of the Day’ for their fantastic enthusiasm and teamwork throughout the event.
Inside the sports pavilion was a careers fair with all companies involved hosting a stand for the players and other school pupils to find out about roles in construction.
Supply Chain Manager Sarah Adams hosted our stand whilst Bradley Longford and Joel Holmes volunteered as referees for the games – a tough challenge with no VAR available on the day.
When I originally put forward the idea of using the huge uptake in girls football to address our set task of helping to ‘Combat Industry Stereotypes’ through combining a girls football tournament with a careers in construction event, I didn’t expect the very positive response it got Many thanks to Ruth Hamer and all involved at Richmond School who helped to turn the idea into a reality, the football tournament was contested in great spirit by each of the schools, but what was most gratifying was the attitude and open mindedness of the girls from all six schools who took the opportunity to engage with the contractors and to learn about the many different career options our industry can offer. It was a privilege to be involved in such a great occasion and witness over 100 girls participate in the event, which we proudly combined with a Careers in Construction event. Our goal is to inspire more girls and women to consider careers in the construction industry and events like this give us a great platform to do this.
Jason Thompson, Senior Business Development ManagerWe were honoured to host such a fantastic event. It is imperative that schools support all young people to have equal chances to pursue careers in any sector they choose. This was a great opportunity for the girls to discover the huge variety of careers in the construction industry and to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions. We have received fantastic feedback with many of the students telling us how informative and interesting the event was. Thank you to all the employees who volunteered their time to support these very lucky students!
Ruth Hamer, Careers Adviser, Richmond School
