The Female Inclusion Plan in the regions of Tarapacá and Antofagasta, where two of the company’s flagship works are currently underway, is making steady progress. The objective of the initiative is to encourage more women to take part and support them on their personal and professional growth paths.

As part of its deep-seated commitment to breaking through gender bias, in March 2022, Techint Engineering & Construction officially launched the Female Workforce Inclusion Program in northern Chile. The strategy has been enormously successful: to date, some 200 women have been trained by the company, recruited through a wide-ranging process to find candidates for assistant positions in civil engineering and topography, and as riggers, drivers, operators and electricians, for instance.

The plan, in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5, is designed to encourage women to participate in hiring and recruitment processes through talent attraction policies that include different training programs. In this way, women living anywhere in the country can acquire knowledge and develop the skills needed to perform adequately in the areas of engineering and construction, thus becoming candidates for posts in the company, improving their employability.

“This program represents Techint E&C's continued commitment to achieving greater female inclusion in the industry. We want to make sure that women who lack the opportunity to acquire experience in operational areas can receive basic training and join the company as workers, acquiring practice and more experience, especially at a technical level," explains Michele Araujo, Community Relations and Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator.

Ricardo Juan, the Water Pumping System Project Manager for Compañía Minera Doña Inés de Collahuasi (CMDIC), points out: “We've hired over 100 women from the inclusion Program to join C20+—a major milestone. Each woman brings a unique and valuable perspective, propelling our company forward. Their contributions can be seen in improved performance, greater efficiency and higher productivity levels, adding value to our projects and the Tarapacá region as a whole.”

Recruiting the local workforce

Freddy Quezada, the Manager of Human Resources and Community Relations at the Desalinated Water Supply for the Northern District (SADDN in Spanish), highlighted the important role played by women in the industry as a whole, and how this has been key to making the project an inclusive one.

“Currently, all the women in the Inclusion Program are from Tocopilla, which provides us with an incentive to continue moving down this path. The challenges we face are of a technical nature, which is where the company is focusing, given that the main idea is to increase female participation as work progresses,” he explains.

Quezada adds: “It’s essential for us to be able to contribute to and support neighboring communities and employing local talent is a concrete action. We’re delighted to see a fairly significant number of people from Tocopilla, María Elena, Calama, Sierra Gorda and Mejillones.”

First-hand experience

Lily Núñez Letelier, the first female equipment operator at the SADDN project, highlighted her learning journey at Techint E&C. “This has been an extraordinarily enriching opportunity and I’m very grateful to Techint E&C for giving me the chance to do this,” she said. She’s keen to encourage others to follow in her footsteps. “Being able to work in an area that’s inspiring is really good for both professional and personal growth,” she urges.

Techint E&C will continue to incorporate initiatives to promote diversity in its broadest sense and gender equality in particular. We believe that a more diverse and equitable company can better harness each individual's capabilities, and contribute to a more inclusive world where everyone can thrive.

About megaprojects

Currently, the company is developing two megaprojects in the Norte Grande region.

The C20+ is an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract to build a desalinated seawater pumping system for the CMDIC site, enabling it to expand production capacity and extend the useful life of the operation for another 20 years.

The other megaproject, the SADDN, is also an EPC contract, this time to build a desalination plant and water pumping system for Aguas Horizonte, which will supply desalinated water to the Northern District of Codelco, in particular to three large mines: Radomiro Tomic, Chuquicamata and Ministro Hales.