The construction industry faces a stark shortage of workers, but programs and people across the country are working at the local level to solve the problem. This series highlights those efforts helping to recruit the next generation of construction pros. Read previous entries here.
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Since she was a little girl, Sela Martinez wanted to “do something with rocks.”
Now a senior at Colorado School of Mines, a public research university in Golden, Colorado, she’s finishing her bachelor’s degree in geological engineering. After graduation, Martinez will survey construction sites to help determine things like where teams will bore holes or how well the soil will drain.
“Since a young age, my parents used to take me to the geology museum at Mines, and that’s kind of what made me want to go to Mines and pursue geology,” Martinez said.
But it was her dad, who worked in construction, who helped her find a path for her aspirations. Taking career day tours of construction and engineering jobsites in the Denver area helped Martinez discover her passion for geotechnical engineering.
She found those connections through Transportation & Construction Girl.
Part of the Hoya Foundation, a nonprofit based in Arvada, Colorado, designed to help women find careers, T&C Girl seeks to recruit the next generation of young women to the industry.
Opening doors
As project director for the Hoya Foundation, Keller Hayes knew that there weren’t enough women hearing about the trades. It was especially clear due to the disparity in the number of women working in construction. As of August, women accounted for 14.3% of the U.S. construction workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, despite making up half of all workers.
Thus, T&C Girl was founded to make it easier to open doors for young women to learn about, get comfortable with and pursue construction as a career. Early on, Hayes discovered one hurdle among many: the heavy machinery. Young girls were afraid of it, she told Construction Dive.
“They're like, ‘I don't know how to do that. I've never done that. I don't know any other girl that does that.’ Oh, and my favorite: ‘I'm afraid I'll break it.’ ‘I'm like, you're 90 pounds soaking wet. We got you on this,’” Hayes said.
Since 2017, the nonprofit has worked to bring young women of many ages to construction by introducing them to the idea of the trades, giving them hands-on experience and getting them comfortable around heavy machinery. The group offers three “career weeks,” and a five-day summer camp where young women aged 13 to 20 get to tour five area companies.
The firms create daylong programs to provide campers with insight into what a career in each field — such as masonry or heavy equipment operation — would entail.
Martinez attended career weeks in high school, which helped her discover her right career path.
But the bigger event this year was on Sept. 26: the annual Transportation and Construction Girl Day. The event — with over 50 partners, 70 exhibits, 1,700 girls and 800 chaperones — provided opportunities for young women to interact with companies and partners, get experience with heavy equipment and learn about the trades as a career path.
“There was a sea of energetic pink welcoming the next generation of women into this industry,” Hayes said of this year’s T&C Girl Day, which she described as the best yet. “Most importantly, I saw girls realizing they too could find amazing, well-paying, and rewarding jobs in this industry. And they had the chance to meet many women who currently work in the industry who can help them achieve it.”
Thalia Garman, a freshman at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado, attended both the career weeks and the T&C Girl Day when she was in high school.
She said she discovered a passion for electrical work, but didn’t understand what the day-to-day was like until she attended T&C Girl events, where experienced electricians and engineers could show her their work.
“I didn’t know what it entailed,” Garman said. “So being able to actually get hands-on action was really beneficial to see what I wanted to do.”
Breaking down barriers
Garman said growing up, she’d look out the car window and see construction sites, but never noticed any women on them. That, in and of itself, felt like a barrier.
“It just wasn’t something I saw as an option,” she said.
When Terri Olsen formed civil contractor OE Construction with her son in 2006, that lack of representation, which she had also seen in her previous career in the hardware and software industry, was still a problem.
Wheat Ridge, Colorado-based OE is a sponsor of T&C Girl. Olsen described the work done by the organization as visionary, and said that the experience has benefited her company by teaching them about how young women view the trades and what it can do to recruit them.
“It takes a village and we all need to work together to bring women into the construction industry, now and in the future,” Olsen said.
That broad effort is necessary, Hayes agrees, and exposing girls to construction as a career option can have a profound impact on the individual, their family and the industry.
“I would say the takeaway is that we need to let young girls know earlier about careers in this industry because it's not just about changing lives, it's about changing lifetimes,” she said. “It's about letting young girls know there are economically rewarding careers in this industry and that we want them in this industry.”
Martinez described the pride those who work in construction feel when seeing a project and getting to say, “I helped build that.” Even still, she had apprehensions about working in construction.
“I did wonder, ‘Would I have a place here, would I be accepted?’” she said. “The program definitely helped me see how willing companies are to hire women.”
