For the first time in our history, Guernsey Electricity has taken on three female apprentices.
Jenny Mahe, 18, is one of our apprentice electricians working with our apprentice plumber, Skye Gardner, 18 in our Electrical and Plumbing team. They join our first female jointer, Lauren Ferneyhough, 20, who is in the second term of her training as part of our electricity distribution team.
Apprenticeships
We have at least 20 apprentices at any one time, and when we advertised for the 'jointing' apprenticeship on Facebook, by chance Lauren's dad forwarded the advert to her. Lauren was already familiar with practical work as she helped her dad around with house with DIY jobs such as putting up shelves, painting and sanding.
"I thought 'that looks quite interesting, I'll give it a go.' I didn't grow up in a household where it's like 'men can only do this, women can only do that'. I'm a pretty hands-on person; I never liked the idea of sitting in an office staring at a screen all day. In school I always thrived in science when you're mixing all the stuff together. I liked being outside for PE too. But when I was doing tests, just sitting down wasn't my thing."
Lauren didn't focus heavily on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) for her A Levels, instead she studied art, photography, core Maths and wrote an EPQ on the subject of an American serial killer.
Working in a heavily male-dominated industry, Lauren said she was used to getting some funny looks or the occasional childish comment when she turned up on site, and when she first started going away to the UK for training, she found herself being only one of two girls in a class of 100.
"To be completely honest, I've had a few issues, but it doesn't really affect me. With small things, I just brush it off, or I face it and let them know that I'm not happy with what they're saying. The people I work with are very friendly and I get along with them, so its nice to be in a community that is really supportive and pushes everyone to do the best they can. I'm growing as a person, and I'm happy where I am."
When Lauren was asked what message she would like to send to other women thinking about joining a similar industry, she said:
"Don't be scared. Even though there is that sense of it being male dominated, whether it's plumbing or what I do [cable jointing], just go for it, because that's the most you can do."
We have recruited female apprentices in the past, but this is the first time there has been three female apprentices working here at the same time.
Our Head of People, Kayley Clarke notes that we're seeing an increasing amount of female applicants for apprenticeships, which she puts down to increasing visibility of female role models in the industry.
"For many years, it has been very male dominated. Even in schools, it wasn't something that I think girls thought they could go into. Now we're trying to get out there and say it's a career for anyone. It's really about educating people - when we go to the Careers Fair, if we have females come up to us, we can say to them 'have you ever thought about a career in this area?' That starts the thought process that actually, yes they can do that career. The way we recruit is always that it's the most suitable candidate for the position. That was the case for all of these three apprentices, and they give us a really good balance."
Left to right: Lauren Ferneyhough, Skye Gardner and Jenny Mahe outside 'B' station on the Vale Power Station site.
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