How to make a female carpenter: Step one
A female construction apprentice winning a national award might not seem a big deal, but we assure you it is, that it speaks volumes for Gloucestershire and is well worth celebrating. Here's why...
Good afternoon,
We hope your week is going well. Welcome to your Wednesday edition of The Raikes Journal (CIC). We thank you again for your support. We’re now beginning to gear up to start releasing three editions a week (two of those will eventually become paid-members-only editions. That latter step being a little way off yet!).
For those who have not yet digested what we are trying to do, please visit our About page and our story ‘Raikes: The rebirth of community journalism for Gloucestershire’ to find out how this operation is part of our drive to put back in place in the county some real community journalism.
As for today’s main story, featured below, we take a proper look at what lies beneath news you may have seen - that Amy Brown, a female carpenter, has been named as a UK national apprentice of the year. And what better week to do that than National Apprenticeship Week?
In light of the pending paywall on some future newsletters, here’s a reminder that group subscriptions (two or more signing up at once) can get a 20 per cent discount (see the link below). You will be supporting a community interest company - and helping deliver quality news for your community too!
* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (who we will be revealing over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. The support of all of you is invaluable! Email: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.
Why today’s main story?
As we mentioned above, we think the story of Amy Brown is unusual. In fact, it’s exceptional. We outline why below, but the gist of it is that as you probably guessed, Amy is a woman - and that makes her extremely unusual in construction. We’ve tried to put that in some context.
We also look at just how she got to where she has so far - the factors that weighed against her and those that made it happen. Further education colleges are there to teach, but we think Amy’s story points to something going very right at Gloucestershire College, and at her employer, Tombs Developments, which is not always happening elsewhere. If we can replicate it there would be more Amy Browns!
It also shows just how many factors have to be in place to produce just one female carpenter!
Our chosen charity: Unlocking potential, opening opportunity: The Door
💪🏽 As we continue our mission to introduce you to some of Gloucestershire’s 2,500-plus charities, we arrive at The Door, the Stroud-headquartered team whose mission is ‘to bring hope into the lives of young people and their families, by unlocking potential and opening opportunity’ so ‘a person’s past does not define their future’. It works to tackle the root causes of sometimes complex needs. Its pledge - ‘never give up on anyone’. In 2022 it was awarded the coveted National Youth Agency Quality Mark at the Advanced level and is part of the Gloucestershire Mentoring Programme, which supports young women and girls at risk of being involved in crime or who have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences. It costs £1,800 a day to deliver its services.
Your Raikes’ briefing
🔧💻📐 Headlines might shout about a dip in turnover and a focus on staff costs, but new products and serious investment in research and development continue at ever-innovative engineering giant Renishaw (which is getting its money’s worth from us this week! We also featured it on Monday’s newsletter!). The Wotton-under-Edge-headquartered firm, which employs more than 5,000-plus globally, saw revenue for the six months to the end of December 2023 decrease from £347.7 million for the same period in 2022 to £330.5 million. Conditions, it said, were challenging. But ‘gross engineering spend’, including R&D increased, by 2.4 per cent to £51.5m. Staff salaries were up too. Read more here. In January it hosted students from Denmark Road High School to inspire them about STEM-related careers. Hence the image above!
🔌 Because it’s National Apprenticeship Week 2024 - and because this is a job opportunity/training - we homed in on this Cotswold tale, which we will post in full in our PR Wire channel shortly. That’s where we put the unfettered press releases that catch our eye. This is the story of Gloucestershire based network solutions company, Gbics, which has announced an apprenticeship partnership with fellow Cirencester firm The Apprenticeship Partner. Gbics, which specialises in fibre optic products that have been integrated in bespoke networking solutions, is looking for a warehouse operative and (very soon, anyway) an apprentice to join its dedicated sales team.
🌱🍺 We liked this post mainly because it put the spotlight on the marvellous Stroud Brewery, a business which already has enviable credentials when it comes to the environment and community. The post in question links to an article by the Countryside and Community Research Institute that suggests the majority of rural businesses are committed to the environment and determed to plant their flag at net zero. Stroud Brewery, which is quoted heavilly in the copy, is up for the challenge, positive and making good ground.
⛳️ Yes, another Stroud story! But probably the tastiest. This is the news that legendary Slad Valley pub, The Woolpack, has been named as one of the UK’s Top 50 Gastro Pubs. Not bad for a pub owned not by a brewery, but a scultor! One Daniel Chadwick. His secret weapon? That would be head chef Adam Glover. According to the William Reed, which conceived the list, Glover’s approach is ‘driven by his suppliers produce, the menu is concise and perfectly formed, allowing the quality of the ingredients to speak for themselves’.
How to make a female carpenter: Step one
By Andrew Merrell
‘If you can’t see it, you can’t be it’, as the saying goes. As this story will explain, it takes more than just role models to change the status quo.
In the case of the gender imbalance in some professions it must feel like it needs something more akin to several tonnes of dynamite or a cultural transplant to bring change.
The answers to how to account for the miniscule numbers of women in construction probably lie in plain sight, but changing that is like trying to alter the direction of travel on an oil tanker.
No matter how many people on board want to change direction, the ship has momentum of its own.
But in Gloucestershire, something has taken place that shows it can be done, and for a brief moment almost all the key ingredients for such a successful step forward were on display for all to see too (see the group shot below). Raikes thought it well worth trying to explain just what it witnessed - and what better time than during National Apprenticeship Week?
We are talking about a modest party in a side room on the second floor of Gloucestershire College’s flagship building beside the Gloucester to Sharpness Canal.
This was a celebration of the talent of a young trainee carpenter who had won a UK-wide Apprentice of the Year award. That young carpenter was Amy Brown. Yes, a woman!
ONS figures show a marginal increase in women in the construction sector and the numbers of men in slow decline, but closer inspection reveals the female cut is roughly four percent of the industry total at best and on-site even lower.
Back in 2014 in a report called Building the Future: Women in Construction, the director of the Smith Institute, Paul Hackett, said just one per cent of workers on site in the sector were women.
"Furthermore, the gender pay gap in construction is still wider than in other industries. The sector can neither justify nor countenance remaining a 'no go area' for women," said Hackett, not mincing his words.
Moves to bring more women into construction were, he said, 'abysmally slow'.
Almost 10 years on, as Go Construct celebrated International Womens Day, it felt able to say 'the construction industry has come a long way when it comes to the representation of women'.
Unfortunately, that translated into a single one per cent increase in the number of on-site roles now filled by women, edging them forward to a new 'high' of just two per cen of all roles.
Go Construct stressed that one key factor that could help bring about faster change was 'celebrating achievements and increasing visibility' of women in the sector.
Which brings us back to Gloucestershire College and the point of Amy Brown's party. It was much more than just saying 'congratulations' to a talented individual, and Brown knew it.
‘I want to use this as a platform. If I can inspire more women to make the leap, that would be great’ she said, crediting as key to her prgress the support from Gloucestershire College and from her employer.
It was not just the opportunity Tombs Developments had offered her, but the Cheltenham firm's attitude and the impact that was having on her confidence, skills, ambition and desire to go on.
Brown had harboured a secret crush on carpentry while still at school, but felt swept into studying A-Levels. Before the same current began to drag her to university she had left education and begun a series of office roles that did nothing for her.
Eventually, it was her mother who discovered the carpentry secret she had been coveting and encouraged her to make the leap to a course at Gloucestershire College and follow her heart.
“Amy’s mother said she was just not happy at work and a shadow of her former self,” said Dominic Cook, who together with Iain Tombs runs Tombs Developments.
“Since she has started carpentry, she is apparently a different women altogether. She is herself again.”
For Tombs Developments, employing Brown was simple, but made easier because of the firm’s relationship with Gloucestershire College where she was enrolled.
“We know the college, we’d had apprentices from them before, and wanted another. We asked if they had anyone and we were sent a batch of CV’s. Amy’s stood out,” said Cook.
For the college relationships are at the heart of its collaborative approach.
Julie Tegg, director employer training and apprenticeships at the college, said: “We are very proud to be trusted by over 1,300 local employers with training their workforce.
“Our employer partners play a huge role in the success of our apprentices. Not only do they support and guide them in the workplace, but they actively contribute to shaping our curriculum delivery to align with current industry needs, benefitting both our apprentices and the broader Gloucestershire community.”
When it comes to trade apprenticeships alone the college currently has 604 training in bricklaying, groundworker, plumbing, including domestic and industrial, electrical and carpentry.
Demand for new ‘local’ recruits into consctruction is projected to be 6,400 each year.
Factors that Brown may have felt counted as negatives – that she was ‘a girl’, that she was ‘old’ for an apprentice (albeit only 25!), that she had ‘no experience on a building site’ – were all attributes as far as Tombs was concerned.
“Her attitude 'stood out. And we knew from her CV and her hobbies (needle felting - she really is very good at this too!) she was meticulous and had high standards.
"That she had no experience meant there were no bad habits to iron out either. When you have all that, you can teach the rest,” said Cook.
“If I had one criticism it is that she does not yet have the confidence in how good she really is!”
Just as she is the only women on her course, so Brown remains the only women on-site for Tombs, but the firm - which has a reputation for high standards, mainly doing extensions and work on properties - says her impact has been very noticeable.
“Her presence has changed the dynamic on-site. It has changed the dynamic of the company. We don’t walk around telling people ‘we have a woman in our team’, but customers notice and like it too.”
Not that all companies presented to Brown in quite the same way as she searched for a suitable apprenticeship, with the support of Gloucestershire College.
“I did go to one or two firms and I didn’t get the same feel at all that a woman on the team would be as welcome,” she said, diplomatically.
Astrid Arnold is the managing director of the female-led carpentry firm TouchWood South West, which also provides carpentry courses for women.
“Amy’s story is sadly rather common. That she was able to find so much support and was brave enough to follow her dreams is brilliant – but unusual,” said Arnold, whose own story reflects Brown’s.
“I always wanted to be a carpenter, but didn’t think it was possible as a woman and went to London to study a fine art degree. While I was there I saw a college advertising carpentry courses for women.
“It was the early 2000s when the construction industry was booming. There was a skills shortage and this college had won some funding.
"There was a sense the sector was so needy it would ‘take anyone – even women’,” said Arnold, with heavy sarcasm.
“I enrolled, and I have never looked back. But that college is now closed and the course is long gone.”
Which points to the other elements of the recipe that produced the success against the national grain here in Gloucestershire – we have a further education college with the right course, the right tutors and the right support and a company prepared to look at talent over gender. That went into the pot alongside a supportive family member and partner too.
That Brown’s celebratory meal at Gloucestershire College was also attended by its most senior figures speaks volumes. In attendance was Matthew Burgess, chief executive officer, Andy Bates, financial director, apprenticeship manager, Rachel Hall, director of apprenticeships, Tegg, Dawn Morgan, its business development manager, and Brown’s appointed training coordinator, Sam Olaleye, plus governors including Mark Fabian and Will Abbott.
Richard Graham, MP for Gloucester, was also there to champion the achievements. He did not escape the room without a quiet word from one governor calling for investment in FE colleges to be pushed higher up the Government’s agenda.
Abbott, chairman of the board of governors at the college and a partner and head of management and business advisory services at accountants Randall & Payne, was another there to show his enthusiastic support for the collective achievement.
“Not only is this achievement fantastic in its own right, but shows we need to recognise the role further education colleges play in promoting skills in so many sectors.
"I think they are a massive part of the solution to the challenges around skills we face. I don’t think we quite recognise that yet,” said Abbott.
A date or two for your diary?
Thursday
🎓Gloucestershire Young Professionals February social event is due to take place today (Thursday, February 8) at The Ivy Montpellier Brasserie in Cheltenham, sponsored by Hazlewoods. It’s due to take place from 6pm until late. There is a maximum of three representatives per business. Ticket price includes a drink and canapes. This is all about helping young entrepreneurs and professionals from all industries to get to know one another. Find out more here.
Friday
Not exactly a business event like the ones above, although it is an event staged by a business. And we want to make sure we support even the smallest businesses when we can. This is R & R Delights Pop Up! at Stroud’s Five Valleys Shopping Centre. Already a focus for foodies, thanks to its food hall, from 10am to 1pm the centre will also be a temporary home to R & R Delights stand selling a range of mouthwatering cakes.
* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (who we will be revealing over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. The support of all of you is invaluable! Email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.
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