Becoming a tradeswoman in midlife: is it too late?

It isn’t too late. Women regularly retrain as electricians, plumbers and gas engineers in their late thirties, forties and beyond, and the trades badly need them: women are fewer than 1 in 50 UK electricians.

Do women really switch to a trade later in life?

All the time. They just don’t get much airtime.

• Karen Matthews spent 20 years in advertising, then started a plumbing course at 36. She’s now a heating engineer and plumber.
• Amy Lister managed a Co-op store for 14 years before qualifying as an electrician at 36.
• Olha Kulyk was a training manager at Costa Coffee until she was made redundant. She retrained as an electrician.
• Hattie Hasan taught in inner-city schools for eight years, became a plumber, and went on to found Stopcocks Women Plumbers. She now has an MBE.

“You are never too old to learn.”Olha Kulyk, electrician, speaking to Stylist

How few women are in the trades?

Very few, which is exactly the opportunity.

Those figures come from research by metals4U, reported by Electrical Times in 2024. However you count it, the gap is huge, and plenty of customers would genuinely rather open the door to a woman.

What does midlife give you that a teenager doesn’t have?

More than you think. Running a trade is half skill, half everything else, and you’ve probably spent twenty years practising the everything else:

• Talking to customers — calmly, clearly, without the jargon.
• Managing money, quotes and the awkward “that’ll be extra” conversation.
• Turning up when you said you would. Rarer than it should be, and people talk about it.
• Knowing who you are. Useful when someone asks if your husband’s parking the van.

What’s actually hard about it?

Let’s not pretend. The women who’ve done it are honest about two things.

It’s physical. Karen Matthews puts it plainly: the work can be demanding, especially as you get older. Look after your knees, your back and your tools, in that order.

Being taken seriously takes a while. When Olha Kulyk started, she says almost no one took her seriously — “neither men nor women”. That gets better with every job you finish. It also gets better faster when your first impression does some of the convincing for you.

How do you get started?

1. Pick the trade, not the course. Talk to people who do it. Shadow someone for a day if you can.
2. Choose training that leads to a recognised qualification and real site experience. Be wary of short “fast-track” courses that promise everything in a few weeks.
3. Look at apprenticeships too. Adults do them, and you earn while you learn.
4. Find your people. Women-in-trades groups and networks are full of women who’ve been exactly where you are.

When you go out on your own, how do you look the part online?

This is where I come in. When a customer searches for an electrician and finds you, they decide in about three seconds. Put these where they’ll see them first:

• A real photo of you, at work, in your kit.
• Your qualifications and insurance, up top, not buried in a footer.
• Reviews from real customers, with their first name and area.
• A free Google Business Profile, so you turn up on the map.

More on this in how to present yourself online so people take you seriously.