By Beatrice Njenga
Gone are the days when technical courses would be classified in terms of gender. Girls aspiring to enroll in technical courses are encouraged to pursue their interest and take their rightful place in the industry. The Communication Officer at Kenya Institute of Highways and Building Technology (KIHBT) conducted interviews with female students enrolled in Road Construction and Highway Engineering at the institute.
Three quarter of the ladies interviewed grew up in areas where they could see road construction projects being implemented and they were challenged to take up the courses due to the ratio of men to women on those projects.
They admired the few ladies who were in the field and it is during their interactions that they were referred to Kenya Institute of Highways and Building Technology (KIHBT). Whereas a good number had aspired to be Civil Engineers, the certificate and diploma level gave them a platform to start the journey of pursuing their dreams courses.
A few ladies never studied the basic subjects applied in the construction industry which are Physics and Mathematics. This therefore made their catching up quite tough especially in applied mathematics & physics in the classroom but the determination to succeed kept them going. Field lessons are exciting as they get a chance to put into practice lessons learnt in class. This, however, invites criticism from onlookers who discourage them from taking up tasks that have been labelled manly by the society.
The Writer is a Communication Officer at Kenya Institute of Highways and Building Technology (KIHBT)