Two young Mount Gambier/ Berrin women are looking to a career in trades and completing TafeSA qualifications while at school to help them achieve their dreams.
Lily Clifford-Finch and Mia Roulston, both students at St Martins Lutheran College, were the only girls in their classes when they began studying a Certificate II in Construction Pathways and Certificate II in Plumbing respectively.
Lily said she had always wanted to work in construction and being the only girl in the room did not phase her.
“I’ve always kind of wanted to do this, but two years ago I really decided,” she said.
“I like using the circular saw. And I enjoy chiselling. Don’t know why, I just like it.”
As well as enjoying her study, lecturer Marcus Benjamin said Lily was brilliant.
“Probably top of the class to be honest,” he said.
Mia is also seeing success in her course, which she decided to undertake for its variety.
“We actually haven’t done anything with toilets yet, even when I was on work experience I did not do a single thing with toilets,” she said.
“It’s better than I thought it would be.”
Mia said older people were generally surprised to hear she is studying plumbing, though younger people generally advocated for females in trades.
TafeSA lecturers Elliot King and Laurie Cella agreed on this, with Mr King saying with such a busy industry more girls should be striving to get into trades.
While Mr Cella said girls could be easier to teach.
“They’re more attentive and more likely to ask questions, to clarify,” he said.
“I think we definitely need more in our industry…It doesn’t need to be that man’s world that it used to be perceived as.”
