Empowering our Northland Girls into the infrastructure industry
Published 02 March 2021
Girls from across Northland have the opportunity later this month to see up close a wide range of career opportunities in the infrastructure industry, at the second Girls in Infrastructure day held this year at Golden Bay Cement. The event on Tuesday 30 March, will enable girls from high schools across Northland the opportunity to explore the Golden Bay Cement operations, as well as hear from a range of companies and educational providers about the varied and exciting career choices available across the infrastructure industry.
Kelly Stevens, Process Engineering Manager, at Golden Bay Cement, one of the organisers of the event says: “The Girls in Infrastructure day is a great opportunity for our young women to see a range of career choices they may not have thought about, and to talk to other women currently in those roles about their experiences and how they ended up in these careers. Having the event on site at Golden Bay, the students are able to get up close to our operations, as well as talk to our staff directly.”
Attending the event will be a range of female industry representatives, from various trades, technical roles, health and safety, environmental planning, as well as engineers and project managers. Local companies participating include Fulton Hogan, McKay, Northpower, Golden Bay Cement, Stantec and Beca. Educational institutes attending include Northec, Connexis, and Manukau Institute of Technology.
Arden Hermans, Ancillary Projects Department Manager from Fulton Hogan Northland, is passionate about bringing more women into the industry, herself a graduate of NorthTec’s Civil Engineering diploma. Arden helped organise a similar event in 2019 and says “The feedback from girls who attended in 2019 was overwhelmingly positive. Many had never had any exposure to the broad range of careers being represented and they said afterwards that they were inspired to find out more.”
If you know any teenagers that may be interested Mackenize Ashby, Northpower’s Training manager, says “There are still some spaces left, so get in touch with us quickly to make sure you don’t miss out”.
Inquiries should be sent to mackenzie.ashby@northpower.com and registrations close on 12 March. Girls in Infrastructure is an initiative of the Northland Chapter of Women’s Infrastructure Network and is supported by Infrastructure New Zealand.
