JTL's female apprentice scheme pays off

More than 30 South Yorkshire women have been placed in electrical, plumbing and engineering maintenance apprenticeships thanks to a groundbreaking project to encourage women into the building services engineering sector.

Breaking the Mould was launched by training provider JTL in 2006 and has paved the way for more women to enter the sector after South Yorkshire was pinpointed by the European Social Fund (ESF) as a high priority area for increasing employment.

Denis Hird, chief executive of JTL, said: “We believe there is still a sizable equality gap between women’s and men’s employment opportunities in many careers. However, this is most definitely not the case in the building services engineering sector where, for example, rates of pay are standardised. We wanted to use this project to highlight the wealth of opportunities that are available to both potential female recruits and businesses looking for apprentices in our industry.”

David Humberstone is managing director of Tilen Electrics, a firm that has taken on three apprentices during the scheme. “As well as their contribution to our workforce in terms of skills, recruiting female apprentices has a definite business advantage,” he said. “Local Authorities have been impressed to see that we were recruiting females, and in terms of productivity, we’ve found the girls to be extremely efficient, mature and academically they cope very well - often better than the boys.”