News Article

Search On For Female Talent In Property

21/08/2008

THE HERALD – COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

A campaign is under way to make the industry more attractive to women, reports Bob Serafini A MAJOR effort is under way to boost the number of women working in Scotland's property and construction sectors, where the percentage of females is as low as 15%.

The boring or negative image the industry has with young people is particularly poor among girls choosing a future career path and is a serious issue for commercial property as a whole. Leading the campaign to make the industry more attractive to schoolchildren and university students is Glasgow-based Maria Francke, Head of Planning and Development at Drivers Jonas Scotland, who is the current UK Chairman of the Association of Women in Property (WIP).

Francke must be doing something right in winning support for her cause. A 30% jump in the past three years has taken membership of the central Scotland branch to 330 and made it the fastest growing in the l600-strong UK organisation. A networking approach aims to support females already working in the sector with a programme of social events, seminars and site visits to local projects, some of which can count towards professional development qualifications in the industry. But the longer-term gain will come from increasing the number of women in property and construction, with school road-shows, careers fairs and the education system the main target.

“We are really keen to try to promote the industry to schoolchildren, to actually let them know what sort of career opportunities are open to them,” says Francke. She is disappointed with some careers officers’ knowledge of what jobs such as quantity surveyor or town planner involve. “One of the messages I want to get across to business in my year as national chairman is the tremendous value of real-life experience to students from school age upwards. We’d like to see more property professionals taking time to guest-lecture or simply explain a typical day in their working life when visiting schools and colleges. “It will benefit both sides, not just from a corporate social responsibility perspective but also ultimately generating future employees who are more work-wise from the moment they step through the office door.” Francke says a national student awards programme introduced last year marks a step change in bringing into focus the career potential for girls in the industry.

“We have now linked up with 25 universities across the UK who have selected their best girl students from 45 undergraduate degree courses in the build-environment field. The winner, who will be announced at a dinner at Claridge’s in London on September 23, will win a £l000 prize, a work placement with one of the industry sponsors (which include HBOS and Jones Lang LaSalle), membership of the association (around £100) and mentoring advice. This year's finalists from north of the border, Joanne Bell of Glasgow Caledonian and Niamh Treacy of Robert Gordon's, will be hoping to replicate the success of Caley graduate Fiona Forrest, who won the inaugural national competition and starts work with Knight Frank next month. Women in Property's Northern Scotland branch has built on Grampian's oil industry success by linking up with US counterparts in Houston and providing work experience in Texas for their best entrants. “On my agenda this year is trying to set up similar links to other organisations in Europe,” says Francke. The chartered-surveying and town-planning professional bodies are also tackling the issue, with the RICS establishing a ‘raising the ratio’ task force and RTPI appointing its first female president for many years.

“The institutions are starting to do more but it does need more of a push and is not as high up the agenda as it should be,” she says. A breakdown of WIP membership shows property lawyers, surveyors, architects and town-planners as dominant professions, though there are also women involved in interior design and other consultancies. “One of my core drivers this year is to recruit more women from the public sectors where our membership fee can be more of an issue for employers,” says Francke. “What I want to do is enable women to push themselves to their full potential. “You have to start small, and even if we are talking about getting five more women per year in to the industry or half a dozen schoolchildren excited about wanting to become engineers, it is the small things which make a difference in the end. “Our aim is to make a difference to professional women, so the association is actually fulfilling its purpose.”

If all occupations need to have role models to aspire to Scotland could do with more. Property consultancy Ryden, with 33 partners and 130 staff, is currently the only one to be led by a woman, Fiona Morton, though there is also Karen Campbell, who heads the £300m Maxim project at Eurocentral. Earlier this year Alison Taylor's Alan Watt & Co was bought out by GVA Grimley and Fiona Hamilton sold her niche retail agency to King Sturge. Carol Morrison, a young surveyor with Jones Lang, believes the property profession often suffers a bit of an ‘identity crisis' and isn‘t very well portrayed.

“Many young women and school-leavers might not be attracted to a career in property as they may think it is just walking around in wellies in a muddy field with a measuring-tape,” she says. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. “Surveying is a really diverse career option. No two days are the same, and the profession offers not only good networking opportunities but the potential to work almost anywhere in the world.” Diane Kern GVA Grimley’s property management director, adds: “The trend nowadays at universities seems to be for students to opt for general business courses, rather than vocational ones, so there are fewer candidates coming through and the ratio seems to be weighted towards male candidates. “The availability of courses and their profiles also seem to be a problem, so that may be more to do with advertising.”

The sector continues to suffer a low or misleading public profile, gleaned from home improvement and property ladder-type TV programmes, though everyone acknowledges it is difficult to get across the excitement and satisfaction of seeing major new developments through from concept to completion.