Lara Schryver surveys great future at Frankston City
Published on 29 June 2021
Frankston City Council employee Lara Schryver is set to build on her career thanks to the Women Building Surveyors Program.
Council successfully applied to receive $150,000 funding over two years as part of the State Government Program, which aims to give women new opportunities to become building surveyors.
As Frankston City Council’s successful applicant, Ms Schryver will study and train to become a building surveyor. She will also attend professional development events and opportunities through Program partner, the Local Government Professionals Group (LGPro).
Ms Schryver said she was excitedly looking forward to participating in the program, adding:
“To be afforded with an opportunity to study, work and provided with mentoring from the LGPro, Municipal Building Surveyors Group (VMBSG), Victorian Building Authority (VBA) and the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors (AIBS) will be invaluable and provide me with a solid foundation to become a registered Building Surveyor.
“I’m keen to formalise my knowledge with study and use the extensive mentoring to become a well-rounded and informed registered Building Surveyor and potentially progress to become a Municipal Building Surveyor.”
Ms Schryver currently holds the position of Senior Building Support Officer. She joined Frankston City Council in 1991 and has spent 24 years in the Building Department – gaining a wealth of experience from the administrative side to a technical understanding of building regulations and enforcement.
Ms Schryver said: “For the last three years I’ve been given the opportunity to take on more responsibilities, assessing reports and consents and places of public entertainment applications and look forward to assessing minor building permit applications.”
Ms Schryver said that she enjoyed working for Frankston City, adding: “While working at Council, I’ve always been provided with learning opportunities to improve my skills and knowledge. Frankston Council has always been supportive with work life balance, particularly during starting a family with flexible work arrangements and this has allowed for my longevity and growth at Council.”
South Ward Cr Claire Harvey congratulated Ms Schryver on being Frankston City Council’s successful applicant for the Program.
Cr Harvey said: “This funding provides an exciting opportunity for Lara to train for a rewarding career in a very well-established industry.
“The 2019 Edition of Australian Jobs lists only 13 per cent females in the ‘surveyors and spatial scientists’ job classification, so it remains a very male-dominated industry despite ongoing efforts to encourage more women to choose this career path.
“Surveying is also a rather ‘invisible’ profession, in terms of most young people not having opportunity to connect with surveyors in their everyday lives. As a result, very few young people see this as the rewarding and interesting career path that it is,” Cr Harvey said.
The Women Building Surveyors Program was launched by the State Government as part of its 2020/21 Budget. The government committed $6.3 million over two years to give 40 women new opportunities to become building surveyors with councils across Victoria.
The State Member for Frankston, Paul Edbrooke, commended Ms Schryver, adding: “This is all about offering women career opportunities, boosting gender equality in the construction sector and helping support Victoria’s economic recovery. It’s great to see such a strong uptake for the program from Councils across the state.”