Sandra Keenan Wins the Ivan Webb Award
Sandra Keenan is the proud winner of the Ivan Webb Scholarship Foundation Award, awarded on successful completion of her part time course resulting in a Bachelor of Science in Quantity Surveying and Construction Economics from Technological University Dublin (TUD).
Sandra grew up with the industry in her veins, as a child she would regularly accompany her father as he drove his lorry to sites throughout Ireland delivering steel parts. Her brother also works in the industry, initially learning his trade as a bricklayer and is now a foreman. Interestingly Sandra did not originally follow the obvious path and had qualified in childhood development, supporting children with additional needs. However, her decision to emigrate to Australia proved to be quite the turning point.
Her first taste of construction came down under where she first worked in traffic control before taking on an administrative role. On returning to Ireland, Sandra made a determined effort to join the industry. Her initial role was again in administration, but Sandra felt she could be doing more. A Quantity Surveyor who worked on the site, Bernadette Morrissey, spotted her talent and asked her to help with tasks related to the project while encouraging her to consider Quantity Surveying as a career path.
With a better sense of her own potential Sandra joined John Paul Construction in 2018 as a site administrator. A year later, remembering the words of her former colleague, she approached the HR team about committing to a part time course at TUD to study Quantity Surveying. As she recalls, ‘Their reaction was fantastic, immediately saying they would support me while explaining their ‘Earn and Learn’ programme.’ The ‘Earn and Learn’ programme facilitates John Paul Construction employees to focus one day a week on their studies while working the remaining four days.
Encouraged by the team in John Paul Construction she combined her studies with work across our Intel and Castleforbes sites over five years as part of the Graduate Development Programme. Her perspective on her own education journey is that ‘Being on site gives you such a fantastic insight into how the theory is practically applied. I even managed to base my dissertation on the cost impact of electric versus fossil fuel plant; having worked with electric plant equipment on site’
Reflecting on her award win Sandra added, ‘I have a lot of people to thank in John Paul Construction, the support has been unbelievable. I don’t feel like a “woman in construction”, I’m respected as simply another member of the team with my own skills to offer. I’m currently working on our Castleforbes Residential Project where there’s a whole raft of women on site – engineers, planners, designers – and it’s amazing to see.’
Sandra hopes to attain her Chartership in the coming years but will be taking some brief time away to welcome her first child into the world. Everyone at John Paul Construction is immensely proud of Sandra’s achievements and look forward to seeing where her career takes her next.
