To mark International Women’s Day on the Building Brum podcast, we’re joined by Poppy Deakin, Assistant Project Manager, and Emily Melville, Health, Safety & Wellbeing Manager both apprentices at Overbury. Straight out of school, they quickly became involved in some of Birmingham’s most significant developments, contributing to major schemes ranging from delivering workspace for global financial organisations to Arup’s new Birmingham headquarters at One Centenary Way. Landmark projects. Real responsibility. Day one.

We dive into whether construction was ever presented as a real option at school, the visibility of apprenticeships, and how quickly confidence grows when you’re trusted on high-profile city-centre developments. From balancing an HNC with site life to completing a degree apprenticeship while delivering complex projects, both share how they progressed fast and why apprenticeships are far from a “second choice.”

This episode is honest, sharp and forward-looking. It’s about breaking perceptions, building credibility young, and showing what’s possible when the industry opens its doors earlier especially to young women considering their future.

Today’s episode was kindly hosted by Northspring at the podcast studio in Birmingham. A big thank you to our Building Brum podcast is sponsors reality capture and point cloud modelling specialists ScanTech Digital,  Solus, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of commercial floor and wall tiles, EH Smith Architectural Solutions - Brick and Fascade specialsts and Sunbelt Rentals with over 1,500,000 items of equipment- they are the largest providers of equipment hire in the UK.