The UK construction industry has launched a female mascot called Honor Goodsite, created by the Considerate Constructors Scheme, the national organisation established to improve the industry’s image.

Honor Goodsite will promote everything that is good about the industry, helping to increase awareness and inspire young children to consider a career in the construction industry when they grow up, while also delivering important messages about children’s safety in and around construction sites.

Honor Goodsite is a structural engineer, which is an important profession within construction, but one that is still very much underrepresented by women. Just 6% of the parents surveyed by the Institution of Engineering and Technology said that a career in engineering would be attractive to their daughters; the challenge they face is to help change these perceptions among both parents and children.

She will join the highly successful industry mascot Ivor Goodsite, a site manager who was introduced by the Scheme in 2003 and since then has visited hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren throughout the UK.

Honor Goodsite’s first outing was at the Victoria Station Upgrade project – a £700 million project that has transformed one of the busiest stations in the capital. The Taylor Woodrow BAM Nuttall Joint Venture delivering this project hosted the launch of Honor Goodsite, with the assistance of 19 children.

Considerate Constructors Scheme Chief Executive, Edward Hardy, commented: “The Scheme is delighted to be launching the UK construction industry’s new mascot, Honor Goodsite. Honor has a hugely important role to improve the construction industry’s image with future generations.

“As a role model for promoting gender diversity and equality in construction, Honor will encourage schoolchildren to understand the wide range of careers available, while helping to change perceptions of the sector as male-orientated.”

Considerate Constructors Scheme Director Caroline Barker added: “I am delighted that the industry now has a female mascot. As the first female engineer to be recruited at a leading construction organisation in the 1980’s, I know first-hand how exciting an industry it is for everyone.”