First female plumbing lecturer at Southern Regional College

Colleen Rafferty is now a lecturer in a course she completed just last year

One of Northern Ireland's biggest further and higher education colleges has announced the appointment of its first female plumbing lecturer.

Colleen Rafferty will train students at Southern Regional College (SRC) in Newry, County Down.

Women are still very much under-represented in the plumbing industry and the SRC said her appointment "leads the way for women in construction".

"Misconceptions about gender-specific roles are gradually diminishing with a growing number of women choosing a career in construction," the college said.

Ms Rafferty said although she was often the only woman working on building sites, she always found the industry very welcoming and supportive.

'Boilers and things'

The 22-year-old from Ballymartin, County Down, is well used to standing out because of her gender.

Having grown up as the only girl in a family with four older brothers, she told BBC News NI that "being in a male-dominated area isn't something that's new to me".

When she left school in 2016, she was the only female student to study SRC's plumbing and heating training course, even though there were about 30 students in her year group.

In fact, she was the only female plumbing student throughout her entire four-year apprenticeship.

Her interest in the industry was sparked by her eldest brother Blaine, who runs his own plumbing firm, and by their grandfather, who works in the heating industry.

Colleen and Blaine Rafferty (centre) with their parents and brothers

"Growing up, it would have been talks around the kitchen table about boilers and things," she recalls.

"It always was a topic of conversation which would have shaped Blaine into becoming a plumber and, I suppose, myself into becoming a plumber."

When she was 15, Blaine began teaching her the family trade and soon it became her part-time job, working alongside him after class and at weekends.

No bother

She began her apprenticeship aged 17, which consisted of one day a week in college, and four days a week working with her brother as a trainee plumber.

"It's a great hands-on way to learn... you're learning and earning at the same time," she said.

The family business expanded and soon Ms Rafferty was working on large building sites in Dublin, where up to 100 houses were under construction.

"On a development like that I was still the only female, but everyone was very open, nobody ever gave me any bother," she said.

The teenage apprentice had to fit in with much older, male construction workers and it was a learning experience for all concerned.

Colleen Rafferty says she hopes women plumbers will "soon be the norm"

"I understand that it's new to a lot of people and it's very new to that older generation... so it's very much just finding that common ground," Ms Rafferty says.

"The people I've met from working on different sites have been nothing but supportive of my ambitions."

She completed her apprenticeship in 2020 and immediately began passing on her own skills with a temporary lecturing contract at the college.

In August this year, she joined the team by securing a full-time post as a plumbing lecturer.

As she is now teaching a course she only finished a year ago herself, she admits she does get some comments about her youth, gender and relative inexperience.

"I'm very used to it now but I like to think I've a vast amount of experience for my age," she says.

'Never had the joy'

She credits her rapid rise to her brother Blaine for taking the time and patience to pass on his skills.

While many other apprentices had to serve their time "sweeping up" and watching from the sidelines, she clocked up years of practical experience which she then applied to her college course.

The SRC said its former student turned lecturer is now "leading the way and inspiring young girls to follow in her path".

Since she entered SRC in 2016 however, the gender balance in the plumbing department has not improved and Ms Rafferty is still very much in the minority.

"I've been teaching now for just coming up on a year and I've never had the joy yet of teaching a female student, but that will happen - hopefully thing are changing," she said.

"Hopefully it will become just the norm."

An SRC spokeswoman confirmed the college currently has a total of 132 full-time students studying plumbing across all levels and year groups, but only one of those students is female.

"We very much hope that having Colleen as a member of teaching staff will help improve the numbers of females considering construction and engineering trades as viable career options," she added.