Clive wanted to know how you think the industry can incentivize women and even more people to want to come into the trade!
He heard from two brilliant women in the industry, as Kimmy the Sparks and Billie Jo Judd gave their thoughts.

Kimmy said it is a tough task but obviously possible. “Some things that I have been doing to reach out to women is to address the possible. I have been telling them that they can do so much to get qualified as high as possible obvious don’t have to do the usual work but maybe do things like testing etc.”

A caller Jo said: “Clive as a women I wanted to message in on todays subject on how to get more women into the trades. My husband is a self employed builder and has been for many years. As most he struggles to get help when needed and over the years I have been and laboured on him. I was taught as a kid to tidy up, wash and cook. I was also taught to use a saw, a hammer to fix and build. It should start from a young age with the parents and guardians to show kids there is more than one route as a male or female and the world can be their oyster. Great show and big up the women.”

Another caller from the Carpentry Shop said: “This might surprise you Clive but in the last six months I’ve had 20% females than males wanting to sign up to my training scheme?

“Maybe it’s an anomaly but it is surprising that carpentry and cabinet making maybe bucking the trend.”

And handy man Andy added: “I've worked with some really good women in the trades. It gives a really good balance to the site too but I guess it's not for everyone.”

A caller from Roof2Roof had a different view and pointed out that: “We took on a woman back in 2021 against my better judgement but she was confident she could do the job. Four hours in, she quit say the work was too tough.”

Billie said: “I am trained as a plasterer and it’s been nearly 10 years now that I have been doing this work and it’s kind of crazy thinking about it. The reason I got involved is that I was training as a vet as that was my dream job. I had just turned 17 and learnt how to drive and needed pocket money. My dad is actually a plasterer and so because I used to go to college only for three days for the veterinary course, I asked him if I could go with him the two days that I wasn’t in college and fell in love with it that I had to drop out of that school and went to another college to do plastering instead.”

For the full show, Listen