GIRLS at a Vale of Clwyd secondary school have been given a taste of the opportunities for them to take up careers in construction by one of North Wales’ leading builders.

Brenig Construction spent a day at Denbigh High School introducing year seven students to the opportunities in an industry that has thrown off its old male-dominated image.

The Mochdre-based company are building a high-tech renewable estate of homes on the town’s Henllan Street, for Denbighshire County Council, the first council houses in the county for over 30 years.

Llwyn Eirin will provide 22 low-carbon semi-detached houses for social rent, all built and certified to the energy-efficient Passivhaus standard and with ground-source heating provided by nine 450-foot-deep boreholes feeding a heat exchanger system.

Brenig’s three-person team of quantity surveyor Caroline Thomas, construction manager Steve Walker, and health and safety and training manager Adam Jones spent the day speaking to year seven groups, giving them a quiz on construction roles and answering their questions.

Caroline said: “People used to think women weren’t strong enough to work in construction but we are and there are so many different roles within the industry that there are lots of opportunities.

“Women can be bricklayers, decorators and plant operators as well as architects, surveyors and engineers.

“On our site at Llwyn Eirin we have a decorator, an architect and a structural engineer who are all women and I go on site there as well and go up ladders just like the men and I’m treated the same as them too.

“At the moment, 14 per cent of the construction workforce is female but that’s growing and I have a number of friends who work in the building industry.

“Brenig believe in equal opportunities and among our staff we have a number of women including drivers, painters, the architect for the Llwyn Eirin site and an ecologist.

“After hearing this I hope many of the pupils we have spoken to today will consider careers in construction, including plenty of the girls.”

Year seven girls Esme Salisbury and Lily Gage said they enjoyed the visit by Brenig Construction and would consider careers in construction.

Lily said: “It was fun and interesting. I had never thought of a career in construction before but I definitely would now.”

The careers day was organised by Careers Wales, whose Martin Webber said: “I wanted to make pupils aware of the different opportunities available to them in construction and to inspire them.

“The team from Brenig have done a great job and are positive role models for the industry."

The Brenig Construction Group, based in Mochdre, near Colwyn Bay, was established by joint managing directors Mark Parry and Howard Vaughan who first met as six-year-olds at their local youth club in Glan Conwy in 1987.

They both qualified as civil engineers before being reunited at Dawnus Construction which they left to found Brenig in 2012 and the company now employs 65 staff and is turning over £20 million a year, with an order book bulging with £60 million of work.

In 2018 they moved into new headquarters at the business park in Mochdre, which they built for Cartrefi Conwy with whom they work together as Calon Homes with Creating Enterprise, a subsidiary of the housing association.

They have expertise in civil engineering and groundworks while their portfolio now also includes maintenance, social housing and plant hire.