20.04.2023

New Tech officer for the CPA

The UK crane and equipment rental association - the CPA -has appointed Katie Kelleher as CPA technical and development officer.

In this newly created role, she will provide CPA members with guidance and advice on technical, training and safety subjects, as well as help produce and maintain the CPA’s range of safety and technical publications. She will also help represent the CPA on a number of industry led initiatives and working groups and liaise directly with members and various organisations.
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Katie Kelleher

She joins the CPA from Select Plant Hire, having started with the company in 2014 as the first woman to join the Lifting Technician Apprenticeship, having previously worked in a variety of sales and recruitment jobs. After completing the apprenticeship, she became a crane operator, working on jobs such as Crossrail and the Tideway Project. More recently, she has worked as an Appointed Person on a number of major infrastructure projects.
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Kelleher ss an AP

More recently she has become known as a champion for attracting women and young people into construction, and as a passionate advocate for the industry and apprenticeships. She has also served on the Strategic Transport Apprenticeship Taskforce and joined the City Of London Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce.

She became acquainted with the CPA as a panellist at the association’s annual conference and has been a judge for the CPA’s Stars of the Future Apprentice Awards. In 2021 she was declared one of the Top 100 Women in Construction and has been selected as a ‘LinkedIn Top Voice’. She also made it onto ‘Construction News 15 People to Watch’ list in 2019.

“I am very excited to join the CPA in this role and truly believe I can be of value to the association and its members. I look forward to making a noticeable difference within the sector and helping take the CPA to the next level,” Said Kelleher.

Breaking new ground

When Katie Kelleher became a crane operator it was very rare and it still is, the idea is simply not on most people’s radars – male or female. And yet over the years we have heard a good number of contractors state that they find female operators are typically better than the men – a sweeping generalisation perhaps – but an indication, at least that there is no reason why women should not be encouraged to consider it as a career.
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and at the controls

Speaking of the turn her career took, Kelleher said: “When I started as the first female lifting technician apprentice on the 6th of October 2014, I could never have imagined how things would go. I still vividly remember the phone call asking if I would be interested in becoming a crane operator, an idea that had never crossed my mind and probably never would have.”

“The past eight and a half years have flown by in a flurry and a blink! I am so grateful of the opportunity that was given to me to change my life around, I really do believe my life as I know it started the moment I took the decision to change career and become an apprentice. It was honestly the day everything changed for the better.”

“Each year has gone from strength to strength, I have been involved in so many things I would never have dreamed of due to that first step. I really can’t thank Select enough for all they have given me, the doors that have been opened, the network I have built and the friends I have made.”

“I leave on fantastic terms, and it is never easy to start again but sometimes you just got to keep on pushing onwards, as hard as it is to change if I look back exactly eight years, five months, and two weeks ago it took one leap of faith to change my life and I believe this change will be just as positive.”