On December 5, a partnership agreement was signed between the Elles bougent association, Bouygues Construction and its women’s network, WeLink. The aim of the partnership is to raise young women’s awareness of professions in the construction industry through the involvement of the Group’s female engineers and technicians, who will act as mentors for Elles bougent. 

 The partnership agreement was signed at the Bouygues Group’s head office in Avenue Hoche, Paris, by Jean-Manuel Soussan, Executive Vice President of Bouygues Construction with responsibility for human resources and policy on corporate and social responsibility, Catherine Gutknecht, president of WeLink, the Group’s network for women, and Marie-Sophie Pawlak, president and founder of Elles bougent (“Women on the move”). Around thirty guests attended, including representatives of other partner companies of Elles bougent and higher education establishments.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Jean-Manuel Soussan encouraged women to show their ambition and stressed the importance of men and women being committed to issues of professional diversity and equal opportunities.

For more than ten years, Elles bougent has introduced schoolgirls and female students to exciting career paths as engineers and technicians. Its aim is to encourage ambitions so that these young women consider entering sectors of industry where there is a dearth of female talents, such as construction, energy, digital technology and transport. Catherine Gutknecht warmly welcomed the new partnership: “Our approaches are complementary and occur at different stages of women’s careers. Elles bougent is concerned with young women at high school or in higher education, while the WeLink network supports women once they have joined the company so they can flourish, grow and help Bouygues Construction develop.”

There are already approximately thirty female mentors in place at Bouygues Construction, engineers and technicians who have volunteered to talk to girls and young women about their professional experiences. A number of projects with the association are being planned, such as an Elles bougent quiz on Bouygues Construction’s stand at the ESTP forum on December 13, talks given by Bouygues Construction mentors on January 24 at an event dedicated to the digital technology sector, and awareness-raising initiatives to be held in all the Group’s countries to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8. A major event dedicated to the construction sector is being scheduled for the 2017-2018 academic year.