Experience built environment at UTS

Maddison King, UTS student: A lot of people ask me why I chose construction. They expected me to say, "Oh, I have family in construction," or "I've had some sort of role model that was in construction." But that's not really the case for me. It was more just me wanting to challenge myself.

I've always been very interested in design and architecture, except that wasn't hands on enough for me. So just sitting in an office every day doesn't really appeal to me. I want to be out on site and I want to be learning.

I study a Bachelor of Construction Project Management at UTS. It's a very practical subject, which is something that I absolutely love. It's very hands on. We get to go out onto site for some of our assignments.

So far, I've traveled to Cambodia to build a house. I've travelled to Nepal to build a new farming product, and I've got to go to China to learn a little bit of Chinese.

In 2017, I co founded the UTS Women in Construction Society, and one of the main reasons why I decided to start the group was to encourage more females to enter the construction industry. 

When I was in year 12, I had absolutely no idea what construction project management was or that it even existed. We have networking events that happen twice a year where industry panelist come in and speak to students.

We also have a lot of socializing events just so all the females get to know each other in different year groups and really set up their network within the university.

Janette O'Brian, Director – JLL Construction: I've been working in construction now for well over 20 years. I actually graduated from UTS about 32 years ago. And so I gradually, I built up my career. I didn't know that I was gonna move into construction straight away.

I guess you get success in projects that then gives you the confidence to move on to another project. The industry of construction to me is very exciting 'cause no two projects are the same.

Ashling Codd, Buildcorp - Bid & Design Manager: I think there's definitely a misconception that construction is more geared towards males. The techniques and skills you need for construction, females aren't at any disadvantage. 

Janette O'Brian: The era that we're in at the moment, there's so many opportunities for women in what I guess is seen as being fairly male dominated fields in the past.

Diversity in the workplace is getting stronger and greater. If you work hard and you're passionate, that will just get you so far in the working world. If you show those attributes and do that while you're at uni studying, you go into the workforce a much stronger person.

Maddison King: UTS has many industry connections with construction companies, and it was through these connections that I was able to secure a position at Mirvac where I am currently a cadet.

I thought that I was going to face a lot of challenges and obstacles because I was a female and especially a young female just entering the construction industry with no experience. My expectations have been completely flipped around.

Everyone that I work at here with Mirvac is so encouraging and so supportive, and they're giving me really, really good tasks to help me develop all my skills. I get to go out on site. I get to manage subcontractors. I get to manage deliveries and orders, and it's really allowing me to grow and learn so many new things.

Ashling Codd: Theory will only take you so far. Practical puts all of that into practice and it makes all that theory relevant. You learn quicker when you actually get on site and see and figure out how construction works.

Maddison King: I definitely think that there's a stereotype of the construction industry where if you're entering the industry, you're pretty much going to be laying bricks or doing something with a hammer, and that's what I thought of when I was in year 12 when I thought of construction except that is completely not true.

There are so many management positions available. There's residential houses, you can start your own business and you can work on really large infrastructure projects such as skyscrapers. You can work on bridges. You can work on rail networks. There's so many different options.

Without construction, society would pretty much halt because we're obviously a growing community and a growing population, so construction will always be needed.

UTS would like to thank the team at Mirvac for supporting our students and allowing us the opportunity to visit their construction site.