The market for female sparks

[Floody]

Hi folks.

Misses is thinking of a career change, and since seeing me progress as a spark with the pay and opportunities in the industry etc, shes quite fancying giving it a go.

As I work mainly in industry I see a few female Engineers but not necessarily female sparks (but 1 or 2 here and there)

What's it like for the female in a domestic setting? Any female sparks here with a decent answer, or anyone with female apprentices?

Be good to get some info to show her.
Shes pretty good on the eye too...so may go in her favour ?

 

[SparkyChick]

I wouldn't say it's much different to any other spark in the domestic market. If she provides a quality service at a reasonable price then she should be able to build a client base and a business.

The only advantage being female offers is that some people are more comfortable with a lady working in their home than a man. Purely psychological I would guess as we're seen as less of a threat. Consequently I have quite a lot of elderly clients, people who could be considered vulnerable and at risk of abuse (gay couples for example) and it can be handy for some organisations which may prefer women in their buildings (I do maintenance for Cardiff Women's Aid for example).

 

[Floody]

That's a great insight, thanks SparkyChick.
We are in Swansea. Would love her to have a few unpaid experience days with someone so she can see if its up her street or not. Would this be something that you could possibly help her with, if your local to Cardiff? Shes extremely switched on (excuse the pun), so would be very happy for her to pursue a career in our field if she has the right minerals for it.

 

[freddo]

I've only ever worked with/come across one female electrician, she was in my college class. She did work experience with the company I work for for a few weeks, as her employer worked only in one specific area. Her work was excellent, and I believe she was at the top of our class.

The only issues were on site no ladies bogs, and all the perverted road builders coming in the house we were second fixing to gawk at her. This was about 14 years ago, things have changed quite a bit now.

It would be interesting to know how many ladies are interested in this sort of work but are put off for one reason or another.

 

[James]

I have had a female apprentice for a week every now and then when her employer is away on his holidays.

she was good at her job when not on the phone to her boyfriend (an age thing more than a gender thing I think)

but there were some occasions where site facilities were not up to catering for girls.

little things like you could only find good hand cleaner in the gents, ladies had scented soap etc that may have been good for the typing pool but she was grafting with me and needed scrub muck off, not smell of lavender oils.

a couple of sites where there were no facilities at all meant driving her 20 min round trip to the nearest pub or mcdonalds etc.

I totally see where sparkychick is going though, I think there must be a large untapped market out there where you girls could do well and have almost no competition from the 95% of sparks out there who happen to be male.
female customers, vulnerable customers , the elderly.
rightly or wrongly they may well prefer a woman in there home than a man.

Best of Luck