Cissy Ernst, jack-of-all-trades on the construction site on behalf of Ampliar

The infrastructure sector is still too much seen as a man's world. Nothing could be further from the truth. More and more women are finding jobs and a place in the world of civil engineering. And we are happy to introduce them to you in detail. In each edition of GWW-Bouwmat, we let a woman from the sector talk about her job and what makes it so great. In this edition, we give the floor to Cissy Ernst, a jack-of-all-trades on many construction sites on behalf of Ampliar.

The story of Cissy, now 63 years young, can truly be called special. "After finishing high school, I had the idea of studying creative mts," she begins her story enthusiastically. "At one point I got inspired by my neighbor boy who had chosen to study electrical engineering at mts. I told my father and added that if I went to mts, I would make the choice for mts architecture. My father replied: why don't you do that then? And so I did. I haven't regretted it for a moment, because I really loved it."

Job Fair

Shortly after completing her education, she married and started a family. "I was a stay-at-home mom for forty years, as was fairly common in those days," she says. In that capacity, she never accrued unemployment rights, and because of her survivor's pension, she cannot claim social security benefits. "I was eager to get back to work. Through a job fair in my hometown, I got in touch with Ampliar, a company dedicated to social return. They did have a 'job' for me at Gebr. van der Lee." At the time, the contractor was busy making the connection of Wezep and business park H2O to the A28 motorway. "I was rightfully a jack-of-all-trades there, checking the temperature of the asphalt brought in, being deployed as a traffic controller, and so much more. I enjoyed working there for seven months until the end of April 2024."

Men don't bite

Soon after the assignment in Wezep, Cissy was deployed by Ampliar on a project of Van Hattum and Blankevoort in Nunspeet. Here the station environment was renewed, where an existing railroad crossing was replaced by two separate underpasses. On this project, too, Cissy was the creative jack-of-all-trades. "Among other things, I managed traffic, transported materials back and forth on the construction site and brought them to the guys, handled a bit of construction administration and, as area janitor, kept order and cleanliness. Again, I really enjoyed this. It's great working in construction, even as a woman. I often hear back from other women "how cool that you dare to do this". Well, there's nothing tough about that. Men don't bite." Meanwhile, this project has also been completed for Cissy, but the next assignment is already coming up. 

In the future, Cissy sees herself holding positions in other positions as well. "Given my education, there are plenty of opportunities in construction," she says ambitiously. We are undoubtedly going to hear more about that.