text: Increase in female workforce key to driving road improvement forward say Aggregate | Buildingtalk | Construction news and building products for specifiers
  Increase in female workforce key to driving road improvement forward say Aggregate
  Aggregate Industries believe encouraging more women into the industry could be vital to ensure the future of the British transport infrastructure.
  Increasingly ambitious road improvement targets mean an estimated 12,000 additional people will be required to work across the road network, according to Highways UK.
  Together with this, an escalating skills gap exists and Aggregate envisage their approach to rebalancing this gender inequality will help resolve this.
  Through its diversity and inclusion strategy, the company has launched a commitment to achieving a 20 percent gender balance by 2020, moving to 30 percent by 2030, in a move it perceives necessary for the industry to meet its full potential.
  Paddy Murphy, Managing Director of Contracting Services at Aggregate Industries, said: "A major concern in the industry is ensuring we have the right people, for the right roles, for the future.
  "The government has highlighted that upgrading the UK's infrastructure is a key priority for ensuring future economic growth, and to deliver these improvements we will need a highly skilled, trained workforce, including engineers.
  "We see our efforts to rebalance our own workforce, focusing on attractive more women, as essential to providing the personnel required, and this view is backed by the changing perceptions amongst women towards working in these fields.
  "Our research reveals that more female students are taking up trade topics and this is resulting in us seeing more female graduates every year.
  A quarter of all graduates taken on at Aggregate Industries in 2015 and 2016 were female and a third of higher apprentices employed were female, demonstrating the success the company is seeing in its ambition to a more balanced workforce.
  Paddy added: "The rebalancing of our workforce has a number of benefits, as a more diverse and inclusive workforce can help achieve a higher return on equity and better financial performance.
  "By increasing the number of women employed, we are able to strengthen our intellectual capacity, improving our ability to innovate and adapt in a fast changing environment."