Orienda is following in her father´s footsteps
She´s one of the very few female gas engineers in Britain
In a predominantly man´s world Orienda Hopkins is bucking the trend as one of only a handful of female gas engineers in the country.
Orienda, 26, broke the mould when she decided she wanted to follow in her father´s footsteps and become a gas fitter.
She joined his firm, Robert Hopkins Plumbing and Heating – a sub contractor of BGC – as an apprentice and combined the day to day work with college studies.
She is now in her final year of her NVQ II Natural Gas course at Stoke on Trent College and is then set to take the ACS Assessment, which will lead to her becoming Corgi registered.
Orienda, who lives with her partner Adam Hatfield in Stoke-on-Trent, has never regretted her career path and believes there are plenty of advantages to being one of the only women in her trade.
She said: "I had always worked closely with my dad even when I was at school so it was a bit of a natural thing to go on and do for a career. So far I have never come across another woman working in this profession. There is no other female on my college course and only a handful in the country I believe – but it doesn´t bother me the slightest. In fact I have received nothing but positive encouragement off male engineers and both they and the customers tend to be very supportive simply because I am a bit unique."
She added: "I know I am bucking the trend but it is a career path I would readily recommend to women. I think they would be surprised how enjoyable and how rewarding a career like this can be."
