Case Study: Occupational Segregation - Mitie Group PLC

MITIE has a long-term commitment to support and encourage the 14-16 age group who want to enter the construction sector. The MITIE Skills Centre project aims to address the recognised skills shortage in the industry, by providing training for young people, particularly girls, within the school environment. By encouraging their own staff to become actively involved in the courses, the company can also demonstrate its own role models to the students. There are currently seven skills centres: Portsmouth, Bristol, Manchester, Sunderland, Ipswich, Birmingham and Hackney, with an eighth being opened in Airdrie in September 2007.

MITIE’s role is to convert existing space into suitable practical training areas for trades such as carpentry/joinery, brick and block, and painting/decorating. Where possible, the company also provides study areas, with a contemporary feel, for the students to use.

MITIE supports schools who offer courses such as the BTEC first Diploma in Construction (equivalent to four GCSEs) to those students for whom a blended learning approach is most appropriate, placing vocational education at the heart of the curriculum.

MITIE will be opening another skills centre, based in Cumbria, which will be designed to support the future needs of the Sellafield contract.

Four girls from the Birmingham Skills Centre won a Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) Midlands Region competition, winning £500 for their school.