Entries this year are opening on 2 May and the cidb encourages women, as well as entities that promote women in the industry, to start preparing their submissions.

The ERWIC Awards developed by the cidb, aim to celebrate, and encourage the development of women in the construction industry. As with many technical and engineering industries, the built environment sector still has much progress to make before it can be called truly ‘transformed’. Considering that part of the cidb’s mandate is to promote industry transformation and performance, the organisation created the awards in 2020 and it has been met with great success.

In a male-dominated industry, women are certainly starting to make a notable mark in construction. Thanks to the evolving concerted efforts to encourage women into the sector, today women are increasingly assuming positions once considered ‘male’ roles and overcoming outdated stereotypes.

Over the past two years the ERWIC Awards have been a driving force for change, and the cidb looks forward to another successful year. One of the aims of the Awards is to promote role models for women in lower-grade construction categories and motivate and acknowledge the successes of women in the higher grades.

Prospective award winners are encouraged to start preparations for their entries, and to keep an eye out for announcements of entry dates in the coming weeks. Judges for these prestigious awards are leaders within the construction industry, and following an audited adjudication process, the awards ceremony will take place in August, during Women’s Month. The categories of awards are:

1. Project Delivery Excellence of the Year

2. Rural Project of the Year

3. Mentoring Entity of the Year

4. Transformation Entity of the Year

5. Innovative Entity of the Year

6. Business Resilience of The Year (Covid)

7. Youth-owned Woman Construction Entity of the Year (aged 35 and younger)

8. Woman-owned Construction Entity of the Year

9. Woman Mentor of the Year

10. Women with Disability Contractor of the Year

11. Exceptional Woman in Construction Contributor of the Year

12. Chairperson’s Award

The cidb believes that the awards process will once again set a high bar, as women-owned entities showcase the quality projects they have completed within the previous year, as well as their impact on the construction industry.