More diversity required to fill construction skills gap, says Leeds Building College principal

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Ms Davis said that diversifying the sector was not only the right thing to do, but was also required if the industry is to meet the need for over 200,000 new workers by 2025.

“These opportunities should be there for everybody, and nobody should feel cut off from construction because of gender ethnicity or whatever other stereotype,” she said.

“We had our awards evening last night for last years students and 30 per cent of the award winners were female - which is fantastic to have that

“So when we can be more inclusive to everybody they do brilliantly, we just need to get more students in for construction generally.

Ms Davis, previously vice principal, took over the role in August, and is the first female head of Leeds Building College in the 60 years of it being open.

Ms Davis noted that she is keen to avoid making changes which she believes would only temporarily solve the problem of diversity in construction.

“I think there is a risk of being tokenistic about how things are approached - and that’s something we’re being very cautious of as we develop different strategies across the college,” she said.

“I don't want posters full of female students and students from ethnic minorities if that isn't representative of the students we have here.

“The visibility and seeing yourself in an environment is really important - and representation is part of it - but it can be very surface level.

“We've got to really dig into it and understand what the barriers are, and remove those, otherwise it is tokenistic and doesn’t help.

“This isn't a tick box exercise, because what's the point otherwise - I’ll move on and things stop if you haven't really embedded it into the ethos of how somewhere operates, and in the sector more widely.”

Ms Davis also noted her belief that the courses such as apprenticeships that are offered through the building college are key to allowing for social mobility.

“We look at our full time students and 30 per cent of those students come from the most deprived areas in Leeds,” she said.

“So to be able to work their way through to a degree apprenticeship with no debt and be possibly the first in their family to get a degree, it shows actual social mobility happening and working, and it can make such a difference.

“The average salary of students and apprentices leaving us is £27,000 and they’re walking out without a penny in debt because they've done it through apprenticeship routes."

Ms Davis added that she believes the college would be able to have even impact on social mobility if it was provided with more funding.

“By 2025 we’ll be funded at the same level of 2010,” she said, “but we could grow our student numbers quite considerably if I could increase the pay for our lecturers.

“When you compare what an electrician can earn out in industry compared to what we can offer, its unsurprising we have a gap.

“And i'm not saying we’re ever going to be able to compete with industry because that's not the reality - but we should at least have the compatibility with school teachers

“In some of our departments we could probably double our numbers, and go much further to sorting out the skills gaps.

“That is our biggest barrier to growth,- and it's an ongoing battle.”