A VOCATION TO BUILD ON The construction industry is still dominated by men, but it offers some fantastic opportunities for people at any stage of their career and regardless of gender... J ane Nelson started out as an apprentice painter and decorator, but today is Executive Director of Mears Group, the market leader in building maintenance, providing specialist property services to the social housing sector. Despite it being 2016, it's as true today as ever that few women are following in her footsteps. Jane points out that most women are still put off joining the maledominated building trade, despite the great opportunities. 'Women make up more than 50% of the population but only 1% of building construction operatives,' Jane says. 'That is not going to change without encouragement. I started "on the tools" myself many years ago, as did many other senior Mears managers and directors, and it's important to get the message out that there are good careers to be had in building maintenance.' Good business sense Mears is determined to improve that picture and to support other women in the building maintenance and social housing sector to do the same. Jane believes determined efforts to recruit women into the trades have succeeded in the past and Mears has clear plans to do the same for this generation of potential tradeswomen. Mears recently organised a tradeswomen's conference to hear the brilliant ideas of nearly 40 Mears tradeswomen on how the company can attract more women. 'It is not enough for us to occasionally send a role model into a school to talk