South Africa does not have a shortage of talented women in construction. It has a shortage of opportunities. We have spent years investing in training, offering certificates, technical skills and business development, yet too many women-led construction businesses remain on the sidelines. This is not because they lack capability, but because capability alone does not win contracts.

The Construction Industry Development Board (cidb) offers programmes such as the Certificate in Construction Management to help contractors strengthen the technical and business capabilities they need to grow, compete and build sustainable businesses. But we must ask a more fundamental question: what happens after the training?

A certificate can build competence, but it cannot open a boardroom door, secure a client or put a contractor on the next project. If empowerment is to mean more than access, it must translate capability into opportunity – into the relationships, markets and contracts that allow women-led businesses to grow, compete and deliver.

After years of witnessing capable, qualified women-led firms still struggle to move from potential to performance, I’ve become convinced that while training is crucial in getting these firms up to speed with the latest standards and business management skills, visibility is almost as important, if not more.

We believe that empowerment must go beyond access. Giving a woman-led contractor access to a course, a qualification or a skills development programme is important, but it does not necessarily give her access to the client, the market or the boardroom. Construction remains a relationship-driven industry, and opportunities are often shaped by relationships built in rooms that many women-led businesses struggle to enter. A contractor can have the technical capability, the necessary compliance credentials and a proven delivery record, yet remain invisible to those who award contracts, form partnerships or create new opportunities. Training can build capability, but it cannot, on its own, open the doors to opportunity.

This is why I have come to see recognition platforms such as the cidb Empowerment and Recognition of Women in Construction (ERWIC) Awards as more than a celebration of achievement. In a relationship-driven industry, recognition can create visibility where there was previously little, strengthen credibility beyond a contractor’s immediate network and bring capable women-led businesses to the attention of clients, partners, financiers and other decision-makers. It can open conversations, create connections and challenge perceptions about who can deliver major projects.

Recognition, therefore, should not be viewed as the end point of empowerment, but as one of the ways we turn capability into visibility, visibility into access, and access into opportunity.

Women remain significantly underrepresented in construction, particularly in the lower-grade categories where the journey to larger contracts is hardest. Recognition can change that. It makes capable businesses visible to the developers, financiers and government clients who control access to opportunity, and brings them into the same room as the people who can open the next door. That is not sentiment; it is market access.

When we recognise women as leaders and catalysts for change, we challenge assumptions about who belongs at the table and who is capable of leading. That is also why we have decided to recognise researchers and academics whose ideas, knowledge and innovation can shape the future of our industry.

Construction cannot afford to leave talent on the margins, whether that talent is on site, in the boardroom or in the research environment. For an industry facing a massive infrastructure backlog, a stretched skills base and the demands of digitalisation and sustainable construction, unlocking the full potential of women is not a compliance exercise or a matter of optics. It is a strategic imperative for the future of construction.

We cannot afford to keep drawing from the same narrow pool of already-visible firms while capable women-led businesses remain overlooked simply because the market has not yet seen what they can do. An industry under pressure to deliver has no room to leave talent on the table.

If we are serious about transforming construction, empowerment cannot end with a training certificate or completed workshop; it must be measured by whether women secure contracts, build sustainable businesses, create jobs and contribute to delivering the infrastructure South Africa needs.

So, the question we should be asking is not simply, “Have we trained her?” but “Have we created the opportunity for her to succeed?” That means investing not only in skills, but in recognition, visibility and meaningful connections that put capable women in front of the clients, financiers and partners who can help turn capability into opportunity. Training builds capability, but opportunity builds industries.