Special Feature Female role models in the trades


For International Women’s Day, JTL, one of the leading apprenticeship providers in the building services engineering sector in England and Wales, discusses the importance of female role models in the trade industry with its National Apprentice of the Year for 2022, Michelle Robinson.


O


ver 1 in 15 of the estimated 2,000 women undertaking construction apprenticeships in the UK are doing so with JTL. Bucking industry trends, JTL provides apprenticeships in the male- dominated building services engineering sector yet employs a staff made up of over one third women.


As an institution working with the formative stages of young people’s careers, JTL believes that training providers have a duty to inspire women at these starting gates. Shining a light on stories like that of Michelle Robinson is one of the ways JTL seeks to do this, with the hope that Michelle’s story may inspire another young woman to consider a career in the industry. Michelle began an electrical apprenticeship with JTL and her employer Electract in 2017 at the age of 32, leaving her office job to take up a trade career she had not felt was made available to her when she left school. “It wasn’t the done thing” she describes.


Michelle isn’t alone, in a 2017 poll by the Young Women’s Trust, it was found that 1 in 6 women did not consider apprenticeships because they felt that gender was an issue. Despite a gradual upturn, still under 5% of skilled trade professionals in the UK construction sector are currently female.


Michelle, however, was no longer accepting that trade work wasn’t for her, as she puts it: “Just because it’s not the norm doesn’t mean it’s not right.”


During Michelle’s apprenticeship journey she gave birth to her baby boy, lived through a pandemic, became furloughed, and got married. She recalls an evening when her son became ill whilst she was preparing for a big exam the next


Left to Right: Andrew Hemsill, Darren Brown, Michelle Robinson, unnamed attendee, Christine Walker) day – then, the power cut out.


“You just think, this is a joke. I was literally under a torch revising, but you just carry on, don’t you? You stay committed and remember that the end is in sight.”


But there was more than just the end in sight for Michelle, as despite every obstacle, she achieved an outstanding distinction and even had her name put forward for JTL’s Apprentice of the Year.


Attending the London ceremony, Michelle was eligible for two awards, Electrical Apprentice of the year and National Apprentice. She wasn’t aware she could win one and not the other, so she’d all but given up when her name wasn’t announced for the electrical category. “Then I started hearing them describe the winner of apprentice of the year, and I thought, that sounds familiar. I heard them say she, and my stomach flipped over. I was gobsmacked. To be recognised and honoured for all the hard work, it was a great day.”


Michelle Robinson and husband Ashley Robinson 24 | electrical wholesaler March 2023


JTL celebrated Michelle’s story as inspiration, in her announcement, it was described that she “reminds us that no matter what part of your life you’re at, if your heart is set on working in a trade, then that door will always be open to you.” Now a full-time member of Electract’s Inspection and Testing team, Michelle talks openly about her job and how much she values the variety it gives her days. “I definitely enjoy it here at Electract, I’m still always developing and


Michelle Robinson and Ian Jervis, JTL Head of Learner Assessment for the Eastern region


learning.”


As for the industry: “Things are changing, even in the break rooms on-site you’re starting to see women and men on posters, and it’s little, but little things like that piece together and make it more of a norm.”


When asked about other women in the trade, Michelle explains that she doesn’t run into many on site, but online, she says she’s in a WhatsApp group with over a hundred women in the trades across the country.


“Other female traders message me and tell me about things that might have happened in their days, and I think it’s really important that at times like that we can be offering support to each other.”


ewnews.co.uk


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