Calls for more women to join the construction industry

Jessica Amdemariam said she was inspired by seeing female mechanics in movies

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.

Astrid Arnold said she applied for the 2023 award to increase the visibility of tradeswomen

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."