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"I lasted in that office about two weeks, I couldn't stand it," she confesses. "I felt I was losing the communication and team spirit that I had built up in the department over the last three years." People skills and good communication are essential for every engineer, believes Collins who joined Cameron Taylor Bedford (CTB) in 2000. At the time CTB was primarily a civil and structural engineering practice but Collins' arrival paved the way for it establishing an m&e division. The department has now grown to eight and she sees the potential for it to reach 12 or 13 in the coming year.

Collins came to the attention of CTB because of her expertise in the utility industry, particularly with deregulation issues. Her skills carrying out negotiations for clients with incumbent suppliers and multi-utility providers netted one company savings of 拢7.7 million. "I actually find that it is a big step for us getting hold of other projects," she says. "It's a great marketing tool because I sell it to the client as potential savings for the project, we can get them a deal that will generate savings".

As a young department one of the biggest challenges is winning work and securing repeat business. "The only way I can sell us is by really understanding the client's needs," says Collins. "They want reliability, competence, economical fees, appropriate solutions and timely service." To this she adds the client's wish for personal attention, which is one of the most demanding.

Collins herself has recently come in for some added attention. An appearance on Central News television, and pieces in the Birmingham Post as well as other local papers and industry magazines came about when she was awarded the national title of Young Consulting Engineer of the Year. At 33 she is the first building services engineer and the first female to be awarded the national title by the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACE), which has been running the award for 16 years. As part of her ACE role she wants to help raise the profile of engineering as a career. "I didn't know about engineering when I was at school. I did A-levels in English literature, economics and computer studies and had set my sights on university and a career in computing." But a change in circumstances when she was 18 forced Collins to look for a job. Searching through the local paper she saw an ad for trainee engineers on the International Convention Centre, which was the big construction project in Birmingham at the time. After four interviews she was taken on by RM Douglas who sent her to do an ONC and HNC in mechanical engineering and sponsored her through a degree course at Northumbria University where she graduated in 1995.

  "I would love to see a television programme dedicated to promoting the industry that was on at peak time and was very upbeat and inviting, not like some of the promotional videos produced in the past." Collin's has three young boys. "They think Scrapheap Challenge and Robot Wars are fantastic. There should be more of these television programmes but geared to the construction industry, and more initiatives aimed at younger children."

Encouraging times
Through the CIBSE West Midlands Region Collins gets involved in careers evenings and arranges work experience and shadowing schemes for students interested in finding out more about building services.

She is also in the process of becoming a mentor in the Institution of Civil Engineer's Equal Opportunities Forum, designed to help increase the representation of women in construction, something she is keen to promote. At a marketing meeting last year Collins persuaded the board to organise a Christmas shopping trip to New York for 10 female clients. "At the meeting all the guys were suggesting things like golf, football, cricket, rugby. Nothing was directly geared towards women and as more and more females are influencing the industry, they shouldn't be ignored .

On the trip the group met up with the New York chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) and were surprised at just how much older they were compared to themselves. "They just encourage women more, it's normal for them to have women in the construction industry," she says. "It was refreshing as it is an indication of the future of our industry."