The 30-year-old, from Southampton, applied for the job of welfare cleaner with Taurus cleaning which started at Vistry’s Boorley Green location in Botley, near Southampton, in 2020.
Just a year later, having asked to start labouring alongside her cleaning work, her hands-on approach and can-do attitude caught the attention of managers, and she was offered the chance to train as an assistant site manager – an opportunity she grabbed with both hands.
She said: “The contracts manager and the site manager liked that I was proactive and asked me if I wanted to come on board as a trainee. I put down my toilet brush on the Friday and picked up my laptop on the Monday!”
This summer Gemma will have been training for three years, and she hopes that when that period is up, she will be made up to assistant site manager.
She had previously worked in a string of retail jobs which hadn’t led anywhere, and she lost her last shop job at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020 before starting as a cleaner at Boorley Green, cleaning the offices and employee facilities at the Vistry Group construction site.
She was soon looking around for more to do and, having previously worked with horses carrying out general groom duties, she asked the site manager if she could be given some labouring tasks.
Once she’d obtained her CSCS Green Card, which covers health and safety training and includes an online test, she started general site labouring alongside cleaning – and soon impressed her managers, leading to the offer of a trainee role.
Although Gemma has encountered other women working at the development in office or health and safety roles, as far as on-site construction work goes, she is the only one there. But being the only woman in a male dominated industry has not fazed her.
“I’ve always been a tomboy. I grew up with the lads and played football and I guess in a way it felt quite normal,” she said.
“Most of the men I’ve worked with have always tried to help me rather than say ‘oh, it’s a girl!’ There are some old boys who you might think would have an out-of-date attitude with a woman on site, but I can’t fault them. I’ve never had a problem.”
Her training is a combination of learning while working on site, as well as online tuition and she says Vistry Group has given her many opportunities to do the courses she needs.
Her day-to-day tasks involve overseeing work, problem solving and walking the site to ensure health and safety procedures are being followed – and she enjoys the fact that every day is different.
She said: “It’s fascinating and you appreciate that one day you’re in a muddy field and then you’ve got these plots that have gone up and you’ve been part of overseeing everything.”
When she tells people what she does for a living, she said: “They do seem pretty impressed.”
She said: “I would like to have my own site one day and be a site manager. I want to work my way up, and I’ve got career progression here. I didn’t know I wanted to do it when they offered it to me, but when they did, I thought this is a career opportunity. I wish I had done it before. I haven’t got a single regret about it.”
Gemma has recently moved over to work at Vistry’s Whiteley Meadows location a few miles away from Boorley Green.
Lucinda Box, marketing manager for Vistry Southern, said: “Gemma’s story is a great example of how we spot commitment and talent and help it to grow and thrive. Her energy and enthusiasm are a credit to her, and we are pleased to be able to support and encourage her in her aim of working towards one day becoming a site manager in charge of her own construction site.
“We are committed to helping women to progress in the construction industry and we are here to support all our employees to fulfil their potential.”
Vistry, which comprises Bovis Homes, Linden Homes and Countryside Homes, is building a range of new homes in the Southampton area. To find out about careers at Vistry Group, visit vistrycareers.co.uk.
Trainee assistant site manager looks forward to career progression with Vistry after starting on site as a cleaner
Trainee assistant site manager Gemma Wort is hoping to move up the career ladder with homebuilder Vistry Group after her potential was spotted while she was working on site as a cleaner.