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What trade am I in? - Plumbing Background profile (how you got started): Ive always dreamded of becoming a plumber as I enjoy working with my hands. This became even more of a dream when my younger brother started his apprenticeship as a electrician and I instead had gone onto university for three years and recieved a degree in illustration, a degree I never sadly felt completed to use as my heart just was not in it. Watching my brother qualify after four years as a apprentice electrician only pushed me to follow my dream of becoming a plumber. I also spoke to my mother who said she would support me and told me to follow my dream as its never too late! The next day with full determination and support from my family I started ringing round companies and knocking on doors. I was surprised at some of the negative feedback I recieved. ''Do you really want to do this your a girl,'' This only spurred me on to prove them all wrong and that i was serioua about becoming a plumber. As I was having no luck in finding a company to take me on as a apprentice Plumber i reached out to Oxford Energy Academy who were running coursesfor a level two NVQ in plumbing. I applied for the course and was succsseful in securing myself a place which i had to fund myself. I then again put a post upon social media as the second half of the NVQ course you need to have a company that can access your work for college. As I had been trying to get a apprenticeship locally when i posted again my post eventaully gathered some attention and people started tagging different companies, the whole communty seemed to be helping me and finally taking my dream seriously. Someone had tagged GasWise in my quest to seek an apprenticeship. I called GasWise the next morning and spoke to Tom the operations manager who told me to see them for a chat with himself and Lucy. It was whilst speaking to Tom and Lucy at GasWise that I explained what I wanted to achieve and my dream of becoming a plumber and how hard i had worked to try and achieve my dream. I will never forget the word Tom at GasWise said to me, ''Everyone deserves a chance no matter who you are''. I knew then that GasWise was going to bea amazing company to work with whilst doing my work experience. I then enrolled properly at Oxford Energy Academy to begin studying on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Unfortunetly my college course was postphoned due to matters out of my hands, to say I was disappointed was a understament. It was whilst i was on a work experience job for GasWise working along side Jack and Kev that Johnny came and spoke to me about giving the opportunity of becoming a fulltime apprentice at GasWise. It was a couple of days later when I received an email from Gas Wise offering me a fulltime apprenticeship! I was so excited i rang my mentor,Kev and screamed down the phone with excitment. I felt like i had finally got there, little me had secured a position of apprentice for the amazing GasWise! I am so lucky, and I know I am as I have an amazing team around me and a brillaint support system both at work with GasWise and at home. I will always be eternally grateful to Johny and all the engineers at GasWise for giving me this amazing opportunity. And believe me when I say I WILL do GasWise and my mum PROUD. Top 3 tools you couldn’t live without? Rothenburger adjustable spanner (admittedly I always borrow my mentors), Milwaukee pipe cutter. Top 3 favourite brands? Rothenberger, Milwaukee and Ox Tools Most hated brands? DeWalt. Top social platform? TikTok Favourite thing about my job? Getting to work with all the different engineers and learn different things from each of them. What I hate about my job? Customers making poor cups of tea, I’m grateful but can’t stand weak tea! Funny customer story? The engineer and I went to a customer’s house to fit some new sanitary wear in the bathroom. We knocked on the door and the customer answered whilst trying to hide behind the door, he was in very small colourful pants, fully forgetting it was a full glass door. He then invited us in the house and said could we give him 20 minutes to get dressed, the realisation on his face when he saw I didn’t know where to look. |
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