Abigail’s SkillBuild success signals changes in the pipeline!
Friday, 9 February 2018
Dowds Group are pleased to announce that our first female mechanical apprentice, Abigail Reilly, has achieved great success for women of the construction industry after ranking 1st place in the SkillBuild Pipework competition held by Northern Regional College in Newtownabbey. The SkillBuild NI competition is the largest multi-trade competition in the UK for young students and apprentices and Abigail was absolutely delighted with her achievement.
Abigail has now been entered into the Northern Ireland regional final of the competition which will be held in March at the NWRC Limavady Campus with a potential opportunity of representing NI at the Skill Shows UK following onto the WorldSkills finals in Russia.
Chosen alongside two other apprentices from a class of 30 to compete in the competition, Abigail impressed the judges who could not fault her work and rewarded her with full marks! NRC Plumbing lecturer, James McKeefry, hopes Abigail’s success will inspire other young women to enter into the male dominated construction industry and embrace all the opportunities available.
CIOB has reported that ‘women make up only around 13% of construction sector workers, a number that hasn’t changed much for two decades. Furthermore, that number flatters us when you consider that only 2% of on-site workers are female.’ These statistics make Abigail’s success even more substantial and we hope if more young women are inspired to join the industry to not hesitate. For further guidance about joining the industry and changing the face of construction please follow this link: https://www.women-into-construction.org/
Everyone at Dowds Group are delighted with Abigail’s achievement and we will be fully supporting her throughout the remainder of the competition!
