Calls for more women to join the construction industry
A female apprentice builder from Kent wants to encourage more women to join the trade.
Jessica Amdemariam, a building services engineer from Dartford, said she was inspired to pick the profession by women in films.
The 21-year-old said: "In Fast & Furious and all of that I used to find it so cool when I would see female mechanics.
"I grew up thinking ‘that’s who I want to be, I want to be as cool as her’."
According to home improvement company Kingfisher, just 2% of the UK's tradespeople are women.
Miss Amdemariam was a semi-finalist for Screwfix's Trade Apprentice 2024 award.
She said: "If you were to tell me when I was in secondary school that I’m doing the job that I’m doing now I would have said that is not possible’.”
Astrid Arnold from Devon won the Screwfix Top Tradesperson award in 2023.
She trained at a now-closed all-female building college, which she would like to see more of.
She said: "If you can’t see it, you can’t be it. I think a lot of women don’t think it is for them."
Mrs Arnold said schools should be inspiring girls into construction work and advisers should be educated about the industry.
She added: "Career advisers don’t advise 16-year-old girls to go and work on a building site, they just don’t."
Miss Amdemariam said more all-female colleges would help "build a community".
She said: "I think it would make women feel more comfortable to come into the industry because it can be quite intimidating being the only girl."
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