RETAILERS
PHOTO COURTESEY OF WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL
Community bike shop Westminster Wheels has been training unemployed residents to become bike mechanics. Rebecca Morley finds out more
CHANGING LIVES I
n a time of doom and gloom headlines surrounding a looming recession and high inflation, it’s great to see any programme helping out those most in need
in our communities. Bike shop Westminster Wheels is doing just that, providing opportunities for out of work residents to train as bike mechanics and be paid the London Living Wage while they are learning. The shop is located just off Edgware Road, one of the areas with the highest rate of unemployment and health inequality in Westminster. “We put them through an employability training course and sign them up on a paid contract at London living wage,” Westminster Wheels project manager Barnaby Stutter told BikeBiz. “And while they’re on London living wage, we pay for that City & Guilds level two in bike repair, so they get paid to learn.
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“In that time period, we attempt to get them into the whole ethos of working life, as in timekeeping, presentation, having a little sparkle in the eye, a bit of keenness when it comes to customer service, and all those soft skills on top of the hard skills of bike repair. There’s nothing worse than a miserable bike mechanic. “It’s those skills that I think are as equally important as the
ability to repair a bike – the ability to diagnose the customer. It’s super critical, especially as the bike industry has woken up to the fact that 51% of the population aren’t male.” It’s been proving difficult to recruit young women, Stutter continued: “It’s perceived as a very dirty, macho industry, but in reality, some of the trendsetters and leaders in the industry are women. I think we really need to shout from the rooftops that there’s a good career for women in the bike industry.”
September 2022 | 13
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