In response to the lack of women and other under-represented groups in the building services engineering sector – less than 1% of tradespeople are female – we have launched an Inclusivity Charter for our centres, to encourage them to take steps to make their training facilities welcoming places, with flexible course options to suit people from all walks of life.

LCL Awards recently launched its new Inclusivity Charter at a CPD session held online. We have been working on the charter for around a year, following research into the experiences of women and minority groups training to work in the building services sector. 

LCL Awards is a sponsor at this years Women Installers Together (WIT), the only national event for all women plumbers, gas engineers and other tradeswomen and trainees.

National Women’s Day in March this year saw the publication of a whitepaper about the experiences of women in the construction industry in the UK today. It was commissioned by On the Tools.

A report by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) indicates that more than a quarter of a million extra workers will be required by 2026 to meet projected growth in the built environment.

Faced with an aging workforce in which more people are retiring than training, Mark Krull from LCL Awards, argues that the industry needs to change its approach, from the training centre up, to encourage people from all walks of life to enter this thriving sector.