Jenni Saunders

Remember being told "school is the best years of your life?" it is only now 16 years on that I find myself telling that to my own children. So let's begin my story from when I left Millbrook Academy, I did so at the ripe age of 16 and I knew exactly what I wanted to do, I wanted to fulfil every girls dream .... and become an electrician. Now believe it or not I actually struggled to find a company willing to support and employ me throughout my apprenticeship but with determination I succeeded and landed myself an electrical apprenticeship.

So at the age of 16 I was working on building sites and my vocabulary was increasing daily!! But no two days were the same, from building sites to Gloucester Cathedral to office blocks.

I can still see the look on people's faces when a female walked in; I think that will always stay with me knowing that I was the only female in this area under going this training. I believe that MEB took on a female shortly after my training finished, but never heard anything further on that.

I can hold my hands up now and say yes it is a male orientated area, it is very manual and hard going but I have no regrets at all about pursuing my dream and even though I am currently not working within that area I would love to return to it one day maybe with the plan of starting my own business that would specialise in customers that would feel more comfortable having a female in to do the work, I know my Nan would.

As for now, I could not be in a more different role, I am currently working for a Corporate Marketing team and studying for my Financial Planning Certificate as a mother of two I am certainly kept busy and with my eldest a couple of years from secondary school I get the feeling "school is the best years of you life" will be heard a whole lot more.

Jenni Saunders