L&Q residents are Wired For Success

The Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA), in partnership with L&Q, this week launched its campaign, Wired for Success: ECA Women into Electrical Contracting. The revolutionary new employment initiative aims to break down barriers for women looking to enter the electrical contracting industry at a time when female unemployment is at its highest level since 1988.

Over the next two years, 12 women living in London properties managed by L&Q, will receive training from specialist provider EAS Education, and work alongside three electrical contractors – Axis, Mulalley and Smith & Byford – to become competent and safe to work in the domestic market.

David Montague, CEO of L&Q says: “When the ECA came to us we thought this was such an exciting proposition, we just had to be involved. L&Q's remit is to enhance the lives of our residents in whatever way we can, and what better way to achieve that than to support an initiative that will provide them with the opportunity to enter into a career with a real future?”

Spearheading the campaign, former ECA President and Skills Ambassador, Diane Johnson, says: “On the one hand, our industry is facing an impending skills crisis. On the other, there are more than a million unemployed women in the UK at the moment. In my head I see an obvious solution to two problems!”

Johnson continues: “We believe we’ve developed a blueprint for success that can be applied in many industries where a demographic is underrepresented. Wired for Success particularly encourages women – who make up 51 per cent of the UK’s population – into electrical contracting. This is a career which can give women the flexibility to work and be a hands-on parent. We’re hopeful that at the end of the programme, some will go on to set up their own businesses and even provide employment to others.”

Read the full ECA press release

For more information on the ECA visit http://www.eca.co.uk/