by Charlotte » 11 Apr 2015, 21:13
This is obviously something close to my heart, as some of you know, I work as a boat sparky. Women in trades are few and far between and it is a great shame that there is not more encouragement from a younger age. I know 3 other sparkies, 2 domestic, the other took her marine ticket with me and we were the first two to qualify. I know a tiler and a couple of decorators. All of us are "career changers" and I'm the only one without a degree. None of us took an apprenticeship/nvq training, none of use advertise and we all book up months in advance.
I have been working in a yard recently with an otherwise male workforce and I confess, i can't wait to be back in my van next week, despite the longer days travelling to jobs and not having power on site. I am probably slower than the guys, I'm also probably neater and more accurate. I think much further ahead, in part because I have to, where they can wiggle something into place, I'm off looking for a 6' iron bar! I think the other side of that though is a diligence....sometimes I feel under confident having not done a traditional training, I guess I overcompensate for it, although to be honest, my jobs tend to go according to plan, because I plan for it to go wrong in the first place and make sure I have back up plans in place. The "banter" of guys though....it's as repetitive as the crap radio!