Get Girls Plumbing, recently launched by WaterSafe, will see support from CHOICE Training, in Dagenham, having announced it will be offering four women the chance to take up a career in plumbing.
Further helping to dispel age-old gender stereotypes, CHOICE, a boutique training centre providing courses in trade sectors, is giving away four of its City & Guilds Level 2 diplomas in plumbing studies to women interested in taking up the trade.
To be in with a chance of securing one of the four free places, female plumbers-to-be simply need to write 100 words outlining why they would like to win a place on the course. The fantastic four will then be selected by a judging panel made up of the board of directors from the college, with the winners announced in time for the next full term.
The activity follows in WaterSafe’s ‘Get Girls Plumbing’ research-led campaign which has shown that over a third of homeowners would actually prefer a female plumber. Despite this, however females remain severely underrepresented in plumbing, constituting just one per cent of the industry as a whole. Testament to this, of the 150 students currently placed at CHOICE, just six are female.
Julie Spinks, director of WaterSafe, said:
“It’s fantastic to see our ‘Get Girls Plumbing’ campaign is helping to spark industry debate, with CHOICE coming on board to actively inspire women to enter the plumbing industry with these four free placements.
“Not only are we giving CHOICE Training our full backing but we will be offering these women a free Water Regulations Guide as well as some WaterSafe goody bags to help get them started.”
Robert Tye, business development director for CHOICE Training, said:
“We wholly support the ‘Get Girls Plumbing campaign’; with just one per cent of plumbers currently female, it is time we all come together to help dispel the gender myth one and for all.
“More so, we are increasingly seeing a strong interest in the market for female plumbers and have found that, for the few female plumbers we have trained, they have had a really good success rate in finding employment after the course. We would encourage any women in the local area thinking of a career in plumbing to get in touch now – together we can really help to get girls plumbing.”
All four selected winners will not only receive the chance to become City & Guilds Level 2 qualified but will also receive training including marketing and business tools.