Women In Trades Wednesday- Stacey Lord

Hi, I’m Stacey Lord. I’m an Electrical Instrumentation (IMC) apprentice, as well as a qualified Electrician working at New Zealand Steel. My electrical apprenticeship as well as my current IMC apprenticeship have both been under the guidance of ETCO (The Electrical Training Company).

I first stumbled across ETCO at a school career evening in 2014, and got talking to them about what the trade is, what subjects I was taking at the time (electronics, hard materials and the usual English, maths and science), what subjects I needed to take the following year (physics), as well as other criteria needed for the apprenticeship. Over the following year ETCO kept in contact, asking if I had received my NCEA results yet, or if I had sat my restricted driver’s licence. In June 2015 I started my electrical apprenticeship.

During my apprenticeship, I did work that ranged from commercial lighting and installs, building panels for timber treatment plants to changing lights on the harbour bridge. Now, while working in IMC I’ve been maintaining machinery such as x-rays, and rotary kilns.

I guess you could say I got into this line of work because I didn’t want to get stuck behind a desk and I always liked doing something a bit different, I also really enjoyed doing electronics at high school.

The biggest challenge I’ve faced happened about 2 years into my electrical apprenticeship, when I had a car crash that resulted in concussion, adding 6 months onto the apprenticeship. The concussion impacted me a lot, as I wasn’t allowed to work- let alone physically and mentally handle any work, as I had trouble concentrating, staying awake and keeping my balance (all signs of concussion). It took me 9 months to get back to working full time, and by that stage I had to catch up on my book work and ended up doing two levels together.

The thing I love most about being in the trade is the variety of work and the people I work with. All of whom have never judged me for being a female, and gave me a chance to prove that I can be a tradie. All my workmates treat me as their equal and don’t tiptoe around me (which is something I have encountered, as people don’t expect a female in this role) if they don’t like something, they tell me.

My proudest moment was qualifying as an electrician. I am furthering my training by carrying forward with the IMC apprenticeship.

One of the biggest things I have noticed about being in the trade is how much it affects my mood outside of work. Because I’m doing something I enjoy, I’m a lot happier. It affects how I dress outside of work hours- as I’m in overalls and boots all day it’s nice to dress “like a girl” which I never used to do. I also get to know new people, because as soon as I mention I’m a Sparkie, it opens up a whole new set of questions such as “how is it being a woman in the trade?”, “how did you get into it?” “what do you think about women going into the trade?” etc.

My advice to anyone looking at becoming an electrician is to go for it, do something that makes you happy. And for the females- don’t be afraid of being the only women on site or on the tools. Change has to start somewhere, so why not with us?

Stacey