Women in Construction: Apprentice Plant Operator

A young, eager individual from East Leake Academy, Leia aged 16, joined CR Civils for 4 day work experience as a Plant Operator.

Leia met CR Civils at her school careers event fair and immediately expressed an interest in plant machinery and was eager to have a go. Soon after, Leia organised her visit to CR Civils all by herself and met with the team at CR Civils Ripley Yard to start her experience as a Plant Operator.

Over Leia’s 4 day work experience, she was able to operate excavators from 5 tonne up to 18 tonne and also sat in on an internal Health & Safety course to understand what goes on behind the scenes of operating plant.

CR Civils Yard department thought Leia performed brilliantly with operating all of the machinery.

Dean Thomas, CR Civils Plant Manager, said:

“I think she did really well; she showed a great aptitude for operating the equipment and picked it up quite quickly – she didn’t want to go back to school! It is really exciting to see young people learning more about careers in construction and it is also nice to see that women are venturing into a male-dominated industry.”

Now that Leia has finished her final school exams she has become CR Civils newest apprentice Plant Operator.