She's only five foot two and 17 years old – but that won't stop her from taking on the industry.

A ‘Girls with High Vis' event at Takitimu North Link project site last Friday drew dozens of young women to the roadside.

Girls with High Vis is all about offering female students the opportunity to gain experience and learn what infrastructure's civil, energy, telco and water industries careers can provide.

It's the exact event that 17-year-old Kahlan Flexman attended last year.

After simply wanting a day out of class, she's now set off on a career path with Fulton Hogan.

'I was like: ‘This is an amazing little community'. I had no idea of the volume of it at the time. I had no idea what was to come and who's involved,” says Kahlan.

Cadetship

Joining at age 16, Kahlan is in Fulton Hogan's two-year cadetship programme.

'I spend one to six months in each department. So I just finished five months in maintenance, which I absolutely loved. I went into it and got put with these two guys.

'One is ex-army and 65 and the other one is 22 and quite rough looking. I was like: ‘Oh gosh this is going to be a rough five months' but those people are now like family to me.”

Now Kahlan is in the traffic department, where she's led her first team.

'I was supervisor, which was a little bit of a step up. It was quite fun, very different and very hard.”

Waka Kotahi's regional manager of infrastructure delivery Jo Wilton also attended Girls with High Vis.

'If we can inspire anyone to come into the industry – no matter what career they want whether it's on the tools, in the office, ecology, environment, construction – then that's a huge win.”

Fun and challenging

So how does Kahlan feel being a girl with high vis? 'It's so fun, like it has its moments where it's hard…I'm quite petite. I'm five foot two.

'It has its moments where there's challenges you might face that other people don't, but it's making sure as long as you have really good communication with your team and the people around you that everything works out.”

Next on the cards for Kahlan is study, which Fulton Hogan will fund.

'I'm looking at doing an environmental management degree at Toi Ohomai next year. That's currently what I'm aiming towards…I know long term I'm going to go into health and safety. That's just where I want to be.

'That's where my passion lies.”

Jo says young women need to believe in themselves to get into the infrastructure industry.

'The biggest barrier is actually believing in themselves and having that support network to say you can do this.”

Kahlan says: 'Don't be afraid to do something just because it's not within the standard”.

”I'm a five foot two, 17-year-old girl in a male-dominated industry. If I can be here, then everyone has a place.”