TAFE Gippsland’s first female plumbing teacher wants to change attitudes and drive growth for women in trades.
Theresa Jacobs is the newest face on the shop floor of TAFE Gippsland’s trade centres, a driven and knowledgeable plumbing teacher who also just happens to be a woman. It is her hope that very soon women training, working and teaching in traditionally male trades is part of everyday life.
“I want students to see me as a qualified plumber and now a teacher and that will change their attitudes right at the apprenticeship stage,” she said.
“I want them to see that women can have the knowledge and the capability, showing them how to do things physically as well, so they are seeing what’s possible and changing their attitudes."
Theresa says she “fell into” plumbing after doing predominantly physical work her whole life, from dairy farming, fencing, concreting and then assisting a friend as a trade assistant in his plumbing business.
Once beginning her apprenticeship and schooling component through TAFE Gippsland, Theresa realised how intellectual traditionally male-based trades were. She was surprised at how much maths and science were involved in plumbing, as well as physical work.
But it’s the variety she was drawn to most, with every day bringing new challenges. And it’s not all about sewer blockages!
“Plumbing is probably one of the most varied trades with the wide variety of applications and you can figure out what you enjoy most and want to specialise in because you get to try a little bit of everything while you are doing your apprenticeship at TAFE, which is what I did,” Theresa said.
“One of the reasons we are struggling to get not just women but youth in general into plumbing is this perception that plumbers just unblock toilets. The reality is that is a tiny part of the work.
"You can specialise in roofing, gas, there’s water, there’s all these different areas you can do, heating, cooling, whatever.
“You can choose to specialise, so I mainly specialised in gas, because I don’t like working with poo either,” she joked.
Theresa is proud to be TAFE Gippsland’s first female plumbing teacher and only the second female plumbing teacher in Victoria - just don’t talk to her about gender quotas!
“I am a big believer that it always should be the best person for the job, not that they are a woman or they are a token female,” she said.
“That doesn’t do the women who have pioneered prior to that any favours at all, it’s quite insulting actually for us who worked really hard to get where we are.”
Theresa’s advice to any young woman wanting to pursue a traditionally male trade? Just give it a go.
“Just get out and do it, don’t hesitate. It’s not as scary as you think it is,” she said.
“It was intimidating for me the first day when I walked into the Yallourn campus because I was the only female in the whole trade block, but they were more scared of me than I was of them!
“They (males) are not going to give you a hard time, so I think they should give it a go.”
What about employers who have the opportunity to take on a female apprentice?
“Employ and hang on to females if you can, because the few I know who have employed women would do it again in a heartbeat because we’re a little bit more pedantic and meticulous, so if that is important to them and they want to get it right the first time, they won’t regret employing a female,” she said.
As for Theresa, she’s on the beginning of her teaching journey and having a ball.
“I do enjoy helping people and seeing that light-bulb moment when everything becomes clear for them and it clicks, it’s an awesome feeling.”
TAFE Gippsland offers courses in plumbing at its Trade Centres in Bairnsdale, Morwell and Yallourn. For further information about courses, visit the course page on our website.