Turning adversity into action on diversity 

A former dressage champion who was nearly killed by her horse is on a mission to have women comprise 30% of construction tradespeople in Australia by 2030, up from just 3% now.

Hacia Atherton (pictured), founder of Empowered Women In Trades, tells this month’s 21CC podcast that her unique approach has already introduced some 5,000 women to skilled trades and that, compared to her agonising, year-long battle to walk again after having her pelvis shattered, meeting the target would be a “walk in the park”.

Listen to Hacia’s remarkable story here: 

Also in this month’s episode, Justin Stanton speaks to three, young digital construction specialists who won medals in the WorldSkills UK National Finals (listen from 11.12).

And University of Reading professor Stuart Green is back to discuss the rhetoric of modernisation (20.20) following the publication of the second edition of his book, Making Sense of Construction Improvement.

If you’ve ever wondered why report after report telling the industry to “modernise” never changes anything, you’ll find his insights riveting.

More on this month’s 21CC here.