MBE EP 44 Breaking the Stereotype, Olivia Broadhurst, Qualified LBP Builder and Business Owner

<p>We're excited to introduce you to Olivia Broadhurst, a qualified LBP builder who owns her own company in the beautiful Marlborough region. Being one of the first female builders, she started in the industry 7 years ago and has been making strides ever since.</p><p>Women make up half of the world's population, yet women hold less than 12% of construction-based jobs, and less than 3% of women in New Zealand are tradespeople. Matching this with the great importance the construction industry has on the New Zealand GDP, where with every $1.00 spent in construction, an additional $2.70 is spent in within the economy and how New Zealand's youth unemployment rate is 15%, it makes sense to encourage young woman into trades training. Woman in trades jobs provide higher attention to detail, solve problems differently and bring much needed diversity into the industry and studies have shown that the stereotypical 'softening behaviour' woman possess (that is criticised globally to be a disadvantage) is in fact a strength that the construction industry lacks previously. Not only is it important to show woman that a trades job is beneficial to them in many ways, it is also important to shed light that employing a woman apprentice is an option, with a recent study revealing that only 17% of male employers will employ woman tradies.</p><p>With all the above taken into account, we thought it was very important to have one of Master Builders' tradie ladies on the podcast to speak everything she has learned about being one of the minority female Qualified LBP Builders. Olivia Broadhurst accidentally fell into the trade after not wanting to continue being a check out chick and now proudly has over 6 years experience in building experience, owns her own construction company and works for herself doing the jobs that she wants to do. Ryan gave Olivia call to chat about the success she has achieved so far, what her experience has been being a woman in construction, and what it was like winning Apprentice of the Year for the So