Now Central Otago’s Shannon MacLachlan has used her extensive skills as a strength and conditioning coach to help prevent injuries among the growing numbers of women in the construction industry.
BCITO — the largest provider of construction trade apprenticeships in New Zealand — recently launched the Actions Speak Louder programme, a range of initiatives to ensure women who enter the trades feel comfortable and supported to stay.
It partners with a variety of organisations to offer free period products, discounted Portaloos and free sanitary bins, and discounted essential workwear to women apprentices and their employers.
The number of young women participating in the BCITO Gateway programmes has doubled since 2022, while females doing apprenticeships have nearly quadrupled from 52 to 205.
But the sector wants to further boost numbers and, by 2040, the sector goal is to increase women in construction trades roles to 30%.
As part of the new programme, Wanaka-based training company TrainHer — launched by Ms MacLachlan and Maree Lange in 2021 — designed an injury prevention programme specially for BCITO.
Ms MacLachlan joined the army out of school and later became a physical training instructor in the Defence Force, before moving into high-performance sport roles, including in rugby union, rugby league and surf sports. She is now head of performance for the Australian Jillaroos rugby league team,
Ms MacLachlan and Ms Lange first started talking about the possibility of starting a business in 2020 and launched TrainHer the following year.
Ms MacLachlan said they were driven by what they saw as a gap in quality training programmes for women. Many were generic or had “cookie-cutter” templates, the trends were constantly shifting and they were often pushed by influencers without any formal qualifications.
TrainHer was about putting the science back into training programmes to keep women lean, strong and injury free, she said.
Women in trades faced similar injury risks but did not necessarily get the same support as some sportswomen. BCITO asked her to help design an injury prevention programme built specifically for women to keep them safe, confident and long term in the trades.
The three-part programme encompasses the Strong Foundation, which is about safe movement, good technique, building confidence and building a strong body; then Work Ready, which is about building more stamina, power and resilience for the daily work demands; followed by Built To Last, which is more of a long-term performance programme.
Understanding female physiology and then designing training programmes around that was what TrainHer did best, Ms MacLachlan said. Everything they did was around endeavouring to get peak performance and longevity and reducing preventable injuries.
The business started small and they were now at full capacity. The business worked well for both of them as they both had children, and the ability to do their work online suited their respective lifestyles.
