Girl power (tools)

Published by Hywel LLoyd for Merlin Housing Society in Housing

Merlin Housing Society is improving the diversity of its workforce with its first female operatives.

Although more than half of the South Gloucestershire housing society’s staff are female, its workforce of electricians, carpenters, plumbers and decorators has all been male - until now. Decorator Amy Parker and apprentice decorator Jess Steed have become the first female operatives employed by Merlin Works. And they’ll shortly be joined by apprentice electrician, Samantha Hudson, who’s starting later in the month.

Merlin Works Managing Director Geoff Wharton said: “Encouraging women to become apprentices is so important to us, we’ve put it in our business plan for this year. It’s one area of our organisation where there is real inequality in numbers. We’re delighted Amy and Jess are on board and if there are any other women who would be interested in doing an apprenticeship with us, please give us a call to find out more.”

Amy and Jess are working to decorate empty properties ready for when new residents move in.

Jess, 31, started her apprenticeship with Merlin at the end of September and will spend the next two years combining college with work.

“I’d been travelling and then I was in customer services for a while but I always wanted to do something a bit more practical – I’m not really an office person,” she said. “It’s only been a couple of weeks but it’s been really good. You can express yourself a bit more than you can in an office.”

While Jess is just learning the trade, 24-year-old Amy has been a decorator for seven years, originally in Gloucester before more recently in and around Bristol.

“There’s plenty of work, which is always a good thing,” Amy said. “I’ve worked for a couple of companies before and some of the time we didn’t know whether there would be enough work. And the team is nice to work with – they’re good fun.”