For Kimmie Wheatland, an apprenticeship wasn’t just the route to a job she loves but something that helped turn her life around. “I had been off work for three-and-a-half years because of mental health problems. My partner is a roofer and suggested to keep myself busy I should try and build a shed. It all started there really – it turned out I’m pretty good with wood.”
Wheatland, 31, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, was a tenant with Sovereign Housing Association and when she spoke to them about trying to get back into work, she was told about their adult learners programme for trades apprentices over the age of 25. Now in her final year of a 24-month trainee carpenter course, she says: “When I first started it was absolutely terrifying, but everyone was so nice and I met my mentor, who I’m still with now. When I’m on the road it’s not: ‘Oh she’s female and we’re men’, it’s: ‘Everyone is a trade’.”
Wheatland, who does everything from hanging doors to fitting kitchens, says some people are thrown by a female carpenter. “We were fitting a kitchen at one house for the elderly and one gentleman walked in and said: ‘What are you doing here?’ When I told him I was fitting his kitchen he said: ‘Never in my day would I have seen a young lady fitting my kitchen!’ I told him to come back at the end of the week and let me know if I hadn’t done a good job. He was really pleased and even left a card to ‘the lady trade’.”
Wheatland says the physical nature of the job can be a challenge for a woman. “I haven’t got the strength for some things but I find a different way of doing them. When I found I couldn’t lift fire doors I used my tool allowance to buy a plasterboard lifter which works perfectly. You just have to think outside the box.”
Being a woman also brings advantages. “Sometimes we’ve visited houses where women live alone and aren’t happy with a male tradesman coming in. We visited one traditional Muslim household and the woman didn’t feel comfortable talking to my male work partner without her husband there but because I was there we still managed to get the work done for her.”
Wheatland’s dedication hasn’t gone unnoticed – last year she scooped a Young Achiever award at Inside Housing’s Women in Housing Awards. But for her, the apprenticeship is more than a job. “It literally has changed my life.”
