The impact of training and development towards women's career advancement in the UK construction industry

The lack of women in the UK construction industry has become more prominent in attracting government and industry wide attention due to the potential skill shortage facing the industry, to manage equality and diversity in construction and to have a better flow of people particularly from underutilised recruitment pools. Therefore women's participation in the construction industry in particular at professional level is important. Although, government initiatives have concentrated on attracting women to the industry, the limited amount of successful recruitment initiatives put into place so far will not have a sustainable effect on the number of females entering the industry, unless those already working within it can be seen to be successful and can therefore act as role models and mentors for prospective female entrants. However, women in the industry face barriers to their career advancement within which a lack of Training and Development (T&D) has been identified as one of them. In this context, this study addresses the impact of T&D on women's career advancement in the UK construction industry. The study was argued to be residing in the interpretivism paradigm with the case study research approach to investigate the phenomenon under consideration. The study refined a conceptual framework developed through a literature review, multiple case study approach, and questionnaire surveys. Semi structured interviews and a questionnaire survey were used to collect data. Content analysis and cognitive mapping techniques were used for the analysis of the semi structured interviews whilst relative important index and mode were used for the analysis of the questionnaire surveys. The study revealed women's career success factors which have an input towards the identification of different T&D activities to advance women's careers. Further, the study revealed the challenges faced when receiving T&D. Moreover, the study identified the impact of T&D on women's career advancement and finally, devised the T&D framework to provide best practice guidelines to advance women's careers in the construction industry.