Article Gold Open Access 2025

Pursuing a construction trade: contextual factors influencing career intentions of Australian schoolgirls

TM
Turner, Michelle
 HS
Holdsworth, Sarah
International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance
Journal
Abstract

Factors influencing schoolgirls’ attraction to construction trades were examined using a contextual approach to career decision-making. Focus groups with schoolgirls indicated that contextual factors in the school and environmental–societal systems were particularly influential. The process through which schoolgirls decide whether construction is a viable career path is shaped and reinforced at multiple points within the career decision-making system and influenced by family, career educators, teachers, schoolboys, television and social media, and the reputation of the construction industry. Actions to increase schoolgirls’ attraction to construction trades are likely to fail until there is support and acceptance of women in trade roles across and within the various levels of the career-making system. © The Author(s) 2025.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Contextual factors Trades career construction Career decision making Schoolgirls

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Funding & Acknowledgements
State Government of Victoria, VicGovAu
Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. This research was funded by the Victorian Government in Australia as part of the Victorian Women in Construction Strategy Building Gender Equality Program.
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