The electrical contracting and plumbing sectors came together at a joint conference to devise an action plan to do something about the low numbers of women and ethnic minorities working in the industry.
The m&e industry is to develop an action plan aimed at stimulating interest in contracting among women and those from ethnic minorities. Initiatives are likely to include greater work experience among school children, mentoring, use of positive role models and greater employer engagement.

The outputs follow a major conference on the issue of diversity hosted by industry training provider JTL. The conference, which was supported by the ECA and the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors, aimed to address the fact that only 0路7% of new entrants to the Advanced Modern Apprenticeship for the electrical sector are women, with only 2路4% coming from ethnic minorities. In plumbing, the figures are 0路9% and 2% respectively.

Addressing the conference, Julie Mellor, chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission quoted trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt: 鈥淭here鈥檚 something very wrong with any economy that fails to harness the potential of over 50% of its talent pool.鈥�

JTL is already actively engaged in trying to change the status quo, with initiatives such as its Plugging the gap, LiveWire and Shock Waves projects. 鈥淚t will be impossible to deliver an even wider remit without industry support,鈥� said Dave Rogers, chief executive of JTL.

Julie Mellor called for greater work experience, effort from the Learning and Skills Council to train and support better recruitment practices among employers and training providers and tough targets to be set by the LSC on the numbers of women and ethnic minorities entering the sector.

JTL will now develop an action plan based on the outputs of workshops at the conference. As well as the above, more effort needs to be put into making the business case to employers and the issue of funding for adult trainees needs to be addressed by government.

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor