A young apprentice is on the way to becoming one of Scotland’s only female lift engineers with the help of leading construction company City Building.
Brooke Martin (17) from Riddrie had been fascinated by engineering from a young age from watching her dad working and she knew that she wanted to follow in his footsteps by pursuing a career in the industry.
“My earliest memories are of my dad working in his home office – looking at drawings and carrying out cable calculations. I was always fascinated by the different kinds of tools he had and from then I can remember thinking that I’d love to be an engineer and do the same kind of work as my dad.
“At school my dad encouraged me to take the subjects he thought would help me the most when it came to finding a career. Whilst a lot of my friends wanted to be teachers and nurses my dad would say “make your own path in life, you can be anything you want to be.” ”
Brooke continued to show her commitment to a career in engineering by giving up her summer holiday last year to take part in an Engineering course at Strathclyde University so she could narrow down her field of study. Mentors on the course worked with Brooke to help determine what kind of role would suit her best. It was here that she discovered the intricacies of lift engineering.
“I found lift engineering to be extremely interesting and quite unusual. One of the aspects that really attracted me to the area is that it combines so many different elements of engineering.”
Brooke successfully applied to undertake a lift engineering apprenticeship role with City Building – a rare field for any apprentice let alone a female apprentice.
City Building has an exemplary record for taking on apprentices throughout Glasgow and boasts 33% of the total female apprentices for the whole of Scotland.
Graham Paterson, executive director for City Building, said: “We are committed to training and developing the next generation of tradespeople through our extensive apprenticeship programme and are proud to have such a strong record for our successes in this area. Not to mention the high number of female apprentices like Brooke that we train.
“It’s great to see our young talented apprentices focussed and determined to achieve their best in the tasks they perform. We take great pride in supporting all our apprentices to progress.”
Brooke said: “I expect females working in male orientated jobs are stereotypically thought of as “butch” or “tom boys” but nothing could be further from the truth in my case.
“Although I enjoy the company of boys I consider myself to be very feminine and love to dress up in nice feminine clothes and get my hair done and have make overs just like other teenagers my age.”
Brooke is not the only member of the Martin family to join the family trade – her twin brother Philip (17) started his engineering apprenticeship in Renfrewshire in the same month as Brooke.
Brooke added: “It’s great that Philip and I have gone into similar fields at the same time – it means we are able to support each other and help each other out where we can. It’s also great for us to have dad there to ask questions. We sometimes head into the garage which has been converted into a workspace for us and trade tools and work on projects together – it’s great.
“I had always been interested in lifts and all of the technology surrounding them, so I did not have to think hard about my decision. It was a dream come true.”
