All-female electrician firm expands into Wigan

An electrician firm founded and run by an entirely female workforce, has announced that is will expand its operations into Wigan.

Little Miss Electrical provides a quality service while simultaneously working to remove the stereotypes and gender barriers of the male-dominated industry.

The firm was founded in Halifax by Cathy Cockin in 2017, and has quickly grown to a team of 10. The firm is an NICEIC Approved Contractor, meaning all their work is certified by the industry’s professional body. They also work closely with the NICEIC on their Jobs for Girls campaign to encourage more women into a career in construction.

Originally training to be a solicitor, Cathy decided to take a different career path after learning how to rewire her own home, and is now encouraging more women to follow the same path.

She said: “I met a plasterer, who showed me the building trade. We bought our first house in Halifax, and it was a project for us. I was taken aback and quite interested in property from then on. When we bought our second house, I tasked myself with rewiring it, and that’s when I decided to train in electrical.

“Anybody who has decided they want to rewire their house, will realise you can’t just learn how to do one house. You need to learn a lot more than that! So I got some work with an electrician, on weekends, to try and get some experience. After our first week, I went to work for him full time!”

“I did my training and my own little jobs. I then went to some networking events and they were all really excited about the prospect of female electricians, and someone helped me re brand as Little Miss Electrical.

“Since then it’s been pretty mad, to be honest, we’ve always been really busy and anytime I’ve ever met anyone who is female and even remotely interested in electrical, I’ve tried to give her a job.”

On breaking the stereotypes of the largely male-oriented profession, Cathy said: “When I first retrained, it didn’t really occur to me, because I wasn’t saying ‘I’m going to be an electrician.’ When I wanted to learn to rewire my house, I think I was just a bit naive, that I could just learn to do that and that would be it.

“But there’s obviously quite a lot to it. But once I got stuck in, I was so engaged by it all that I was really keen to do something like that.

“I enjoyed doing practical stuff. I’m quite creative and I enjoyed being on site more than I did being sat in an office all day.”

She added: “I get so many calls from people who have seen our vans. The yellow circle is what people remember. People notice it because it’s so bold.”

Little Miss Electrical employee Aimee will be the first team member leading to cover Wigan and the surrounding area.

To find out more, visit littlemisselectrical.co.uk