November 23, 2009Women’s increasing involvement in the construction industry has been further highlighted after Director of
The Buildmore Group, Samantha Sheppard, was named Mentor of the Year at the Stevie Awards for Women in Business.
With over 300 businesswomen in attendance, the winners of the 6th annual awards competition were announced at an awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on November 13.
Sheppard, who works out of her Caloundra office, was acknowledged for her success earlier in the year as finalist in the property & construction category at the
2009 QBR Women in Business Awards.
The Stevie Awards for Women in Business is an international competition recognising the accomplishments of outstanding women executives, business owners, and the organisations they run.
According to Sheppard, winning an international award for mentoring provides the perfect platform to spread her message of gender equality within the trades.
“Mentoring should be part of the learning path for apprentices. It’s an element that is missing, especially when it comes to women, as they are considered ‘untraditional’ in the construction industry,” she explains.
“I want to make it not so isolating by reaching out to these women.”
A regular at university and school career days, Sheppard is taking her mentoring skills to the next level with the Buildmore
'Women into Building Housing Showcase’.
Launched as a world first through the Buildmore website a mere month ago, the initiative is already elevating awareness and acceptance of women who choose to develop a career in the building and construction industries.
“This is really exciting,” Sheppard says, speaking about her new project.
“The amount of blog posts from people overseas allows you to get the gist of the number of women yearning for support,” she says.
“We really want to break down stereotypes and get the information out there.”
Such information will include colourful advertisements depicting women in trades, which will eventually be dispersed to TAFEs and Colleges.
“I really want to see a generational shift whereby it’s not such as novelty to see women in trades,” Sheppard says.
“Winning the Stevie Award really validates what I’m doing and puts some more credibility to my message,” she says.
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: the American Business Awards, the International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.
There were 11 Australian finalists in New York over the weekend, including five from the Sunshine Coast.
For a complete list of winners by category, visit:
www.stevieawards.com/women.