As part of our commitment to increasing the number of women working in our Trades teams, we held our first Women in Trades Forum which saw our female workforce come together to discuss ways to encourage more women into trades.
We are hoping to inspire more women to follow in the footsteps of our current trade ambassadors as we seek to open more opportunities across the organisation.
We currently have 21 women working across a number of trades, which is over 4% of our total trades’ workforce.
We will be holding taster days next year across the South West to encourage women to try their hand at a series of different trades.
One of our current colleagues who attended the forum was Kimberley Cruickshank, a multi-skilled technician who enjoys and appreciates the diversity of her role.
After only joining LiveWest six months ago, Kimberley has applied the skills she gained working as a plumber to her new trade position with LiveWest, furthering her career.
Kimberley Cruickshank, our Multi-Skilled Technician based in Bristol, said: “Plumbing was something I always wanted to do and then when I got my first job it was in the housing industry.
“It was just something I always thrived with and as my daughter was growing up, I decided to put myself through college two evenings a week. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was lucky enough to get a job with a company while I was still doing the qualification.
“Then I came to LiveWest and absolutely loved it! They’ve been very understanding with the fact I’m a single mum and with being on call, I may need to book time off to be at school.
“With being a woman in this industry some situations do arise with residents, and they’ve been very supportive. A lot of colleagues are very supportive and have time to teach you which is brilliant.
“It’s nice to be able to carry out repairs to make our resident’s lives that bit better especially if they’ve been struggling, simple repairs can really help them.”
If you're interested in joining a LiveWest taster day in 2024 and finding out more about a career in trades, you can register your interest at womenintrade@livewest.co.uk.
