Sarah Arden:
I’m Sarah Arden. I am 21 and I work at Bloom and Wake and I am a trainee electrician and I am hoping to be fully qualified very soon. I just took my A&T in the last few days, so I am awaiting the results from that.
Ed Melia:
Tell me about your school days - what were they like?
Sarah Arden:
School was good. I went to Downham Market High School. Got on quite well there. Got all my GCSE’s. I took an extra course after college and went straight to a firm in Wishbech and was Systems Co-ordinator Trainee. Basically putting the catalogue details onto the computer ready for print off. I gained an NVQ in Business Administration. After a year of that I decided it wasn’t really the job for me, so I managed to get a job at Bloom and Wake in the garage part-time and then I applied for jobs around but wasn’t successful so I went to Wisbech College and did year course doing my part one of Electrical Studies. I completed all of that. Got all my certificates at the end of it and applied again to about 10 companies and Bloom and Wake was the one I chose.
Ed Melia:
Why did you choose to become an electrician?
Sarah Arden:
The work is actually quite interesting. I have worked on anything from domestic to commercial and industrial. All of them have their good qualities and their bad qualities. The money is good pay as well. There are not many people who are females get the same wages as I do. Most of my mates are hairdressers so they don’t earn as much. Basically, my father was a builder so I suppose I got it from there really.
Ed Melia:
What is it about being an electrician that appealed to you at that time? Was it a tough choice to make?
Sarah Arden:
Yes it was. I knew I really wanted to get into a trade and I get on with blokes anyway which is a good thing as I don’t ever feel threatened in any way. I was debating on being plumber but I think the electrician training won out because it is a lot more interesting. There are so many different aspects of it.
Ed Melia:
What was the initial response of your family? What did they think? What did your friends think at the time when you told them you were going to be an electrician.
Sarah Arden:
A lot of them were quite shocked more than anything and they wanted to make sure I had actually chosen the right thing. Because obviously it is not really the most common situation but my family stood by me and they are really chuffed with it now, they are really happy about it and so I have been going on with this for this long now which is four years and I have enjoyed most of my time here.
Ed Melia:
What was the initial response from the lads when you came here?
Sarah Arden:
I dunno whether they felt a bit threatened of they felt a bit strange about having me around here coz they didn’t really know how to act coz most of the lads seemed to want to be like lads but after a little while they got used to me and realised basically I am the same as all of them so I just muck in and get on with the job.
Ed Melia:
What is it like coming into a job where there is continual training all the time and you have to keep learning and you have to keep achieving things and proving that you have the knowledge to do the job?
Sarah Arden:
It can be quite hard sometimes because you feel like there are so many expectations all the time but as long as you always learn and revise and just keep going. You have to think on the positive side all the time I suppose. But I quite like learning and getting more qualifications because it will just do me better for when I get older.
Ed Melia:
How surprised are you that you achieved that last 4 years.
Sarah Arden:
I think I am quite surprised actually that I managed to get this far. Because I know probably a lot of people expected me not to get this far. I recon they thought I would probably have quite after a year or two if that. But I am really chuffed at how much I have achieved and gained. I suppose that it has helped myself as a person and given me confidence in other aspects of life. I mean when I first started I was not very confident whatsoever. I felt a lot unsure about everything. Always worried that I was going to make a mistake.
Ed Melia:
What is the difference between learning when you are at school or at college and learning while you are at work?
Sarah Arden:
You learn more at college with the theory which will be the technical side but if you actually do the job you learn it better on site because you are actually hands on working all the time.
Ed Melia:
What are your plans for the future?
Sarah Arden:
I would like to become contracts manager in the future and obviously to become that you need a hell of a lot of training to know everything there is about it and at the end of the day you learn anyway but you need to know as much as you can to become that so hopefully I will get some more qualifications and some more training and hopefully I will make it.
Ed Melia:
And how glad are you that you took the plunge and went for this career?
Sarah Arden:
Oh yes, I am really glad because otherwise I don’t really know where I would be now. I would have been stuck in a job I disliked and I wasn’t happy about but it is really good it means you are happy about work again. It is nice at the end of the day when you have a job that you can look at it and say ‘Yes, I have done that!’ You think ‘ I have achieved something.’ You just feel happy about it.