Each year the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) scholarship awards $20,000 to a woman who has contributed to the enhancement of women’s careers in the construction industry.

This year, the 2021 International Women’s Day NAWIC Scholarship has been awarded to Emma Georgiou from NSW. The scholarship was awarded at NAWIC NSW’s International Women’s Day breakfast on March 11 in Sydney.

Emma’s winning submission was entitled, Challenging norms in recruitment for Construction: Redefining the talent pool to increase women’s representation at all levels.

“Emma’s proposal was chosen for the potential of the research to be meaningful to a range of participants in the industry from small businesses through to T1 builders.
It also had excellent alignment with NAWIC’s values and in further broadcasting and extrapolating these to the wider industry,” says NAWIC’s National Chair, Kristine Scheul.

“Emma stood out during this process as bringing both expertise and lived experience to her research project and yet due to her background in HR also has accumulated objective observations and networks that will ably support the research endeavours,” says Kristine.

Emma plans to focus her research around the question, ‘Can the construction industry reframe its perspective of a female “talent pool” so it turns into an ocean of non-traditional talent, which benefits not only the industry but the economic advancement of women in Australia and the wider economy?’

Says Emma of the win, “I am so honoured and excited to embark upon this research with NAWIC and can’t wait to share the journey of this work with our industry as it unfolds over the course of the year. From challenge comes change, and it is my hope that this research will challenge the construction industry to reframe its view of talent and in doing so, both ensure women’s fullest participation in the industry and take a leading position in the recovery of the Australian economy and the long- term advancement of women in this country.”