Tamworth teenager Caitlyn Wilson is one of only a few women in Australia working in the trades but says she could not see herself doing anything else.
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"I just didn't want to go to university," Ms Wilson said
"I felt like having the two years in school was a waste of time and I just wanted to get into something more practical."
Ms Wilson left high school at the age of 17 to start working as an apprentice plumber for Level Plumbing on Avro Street while undergoing her Certificate III in plumbing at Tamworth TAFE.
"When the boys walked in for our first class, they kind of did a double-take," Ms Wilson said of the course in which she was the only female enrolled.
"But they were very accepting and the teachers were very accepting as well."
Ms Wilson is among the rare 3 per cent of women employed in the trades across Australia, and her boss Peter Dillon of Level Plumbing said he'd be "keen to see more" females working in the industry.
"It's still fairly lean," Mr Dillon said.
"Getting trades people and apprentices is generally tough but when we advertise for staff, we're certainly not receiving a bigger increase in female applicants."
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Mr Dillon said women in trades tended to have more empathy towards people in comparison to men who could sometimes be a bit more abrupt.
"When customers ring up and it's the first time they've ever had a blocked sewer and waste surcharging [overflowing] everywhere or burst pipe in a bathroom, sometimes guys can just miss that empathy thing," Mr Dillon said.
But overall, he said attitudes towards women in the trades had improved and Ms Wilson was seen as no different to the 11 other male plumbers he has employed on his books.
"Catie gets treated as one person among a team of people and no one differentiates between male and females," Mr Dillon said.
Ms Wilson said she'd recommend those women interested in working in the trades to start with a two-week work experience stint to see if the active, outdoors lifestyle is for them.
"And definitely don't be scared because I've never had any criticism," Ms Wilson said.
"And even if you do just don't even worry about it. You do you."
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