An award-winning housebuilding career initiative has helped a civil engineer find a successful placement with Spitfire Homes.
Originally from Cochin in India, Aneena Thomas found it difficult to break into the construction industry after moving to the UK, but secured a two-week placement at the Viridian development in Edgbaston through the HBF’s Women into Home Building programme. The initiative recently won Career Development Initiative of the Year at the Women in Housing and Housing Heroes Awards 2026.
Thomas has a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala and a master’s degree in Construction Management from Coventry University, and has some six years’ industry experience as a civil engineer, project coordinator and design coordinator.
Despite her qualifications, she found it difficult to break into the UK construction sector, where employers typically look for local site experience. This led her to apply for the programme, which offered the site-base exposure that the industry is looking for.
Thomas said: “Since I didn’t have any experience on site within the UK, it was hard to get into the industry here, because that is what employers ask for a lot of the time. I’d worked in construction for six years in India, but I needed UK experience to move forward, and this programme offered me exactly that. It has built on everything I did back home, and I can already see it opening the door to new opportunities.”
During her placement, Thomas shadowed site manager Matt Nagorski and assistant site manager Mike Scully, observing how they managed subcontractors, resolved issues on site and upheld health and safety standards.
She added: “Even though the process of building a house is the same, the materials and construction methods are different to what I was used to in India. The standards the site team work to, and the way they keep everything running smoothly and safely, gave me a valuable insight into how things are done here that I could take away as valuable experience.”
She also sat in on Spitfire’s monthly project meetings, bringing together engineering, commercial, planning, technical and construction teams.
Thomas continued: “I had the chance to be part of an internal meeting for half a day, with everyone involved within Viridian, Edgbaston. It was incredibly thorough and helped me understand how the whole team coordinates to make a project successful.”
The Women into Home Building programme, launched in 2023, offers fully funded site management placements in collaboration with national and regional homebuilders. The three-week programme combines a week of online training with two weeks of hands-on work experience, with childcare and travel support sponsored by NHBC to help remove barriers to entry.
To date, it has supported more than 150 candidates, with over 50 going on to secure employment in the industry.
Thomas continued: “I’d love to see more women involved in this industry. There is a huge amount of female talent out there, including people I studied with at university, who have the qualifications and are ready to take their opportunity. It’s about making sure that talent is seen and people are given the chance to shine.”
Looking ahead, Thomas hopes to pursue a career on the technical side of the industry, with a particular interest in planning and design, while remaining open to further site-based opportunities.
She concluded: “My experience in India was mainly on the technical side, so that’s the direction I’d like to develop my career in. But the on-site experience with Spitfire has been incredibly valuable, and I’d love to keep doing that if the opportunity is there.
“I’d never really thought about it before, but coming to the UK is when I realised how male-dominated the construction industry is here. I hope initiatives like the HBF programme help open the door for more women to consider careers in construction who might not have done so otherwise.”
Matt Vincent, operations director at Spitfire Homes, said: “Supporting initiatives like Women into Home Building goes to the heart of who we are as a business. We’re committed to opening up our industry and welcoming the next generation of talent into Spitfire. Aneena brought real enthusiasm and a wealth of technical knowledge to Viridian, Edgbaston, and made a genuine impression on everyone she worked with.
“The industry needs more women in site-based and technical roles alike, and we’re determined to play our part in creating those opportunities and helping people build lasting careers in housebuilding.”
