Stopcocks Tradeswomen CIC has launched the National Register of Tradeswomen at UK Construction Week. 

Begun during lockdown in response to the horrific rise in cases of domestic abuse and murder of women by their partners, the National Register of Tradeswomen’s initial aim is to ensure that vulnerable householders who feel safer with tradeswomen can find them. 

The National Register will allow householders to find a fully verified tradeswoman in their area.

Said to be much more than a directory, the Register is run by people who source tradeswomen from the Register local to the householder, to carry out the requested work. This meets householder demand and will ensure all tradeswomen are included.

The not-for-profit organisation also has plans to enable women to train in trades and access funds for training. The Register is completely free for tradeswomen to be part of.

“We believe that women want to know they’re supporting and contributing to empowering other women through helping them into worthwhile and well-paid careers,” says founder Hattie Hasan MBE.

“We believe that women want to enable other women to achieve independence and a life where they have control. We believe that women feel good about themselves when they know they’re helping and supporting other women. That’s why we’re confident this Register, School and Fund, with all skilled tradeswomen nationally joining, will be a huge success. It quickly emerged that no-one knows how many women plumbers and gas engineers, or other skilled tradeswomen, there are in UK.

“We realised that as well as making tradeswomen easier to find, we can count them, which will give us the data to know what needs to be done to increase the numbers of tradeswomen available to householders. We want all tradeswomen to join, whatever their employment status.”

Hasan continues: “We want all tradeswomen, not only self-employed ones, to register so we can get an accurate picture in the UK and work towards making the changes we want to see. We’re launching at UK Construction Week. We’ll be asking all employers to encourage their female trades employees to register. We don’t count if we’re not counted!” 

Stopcocks Women Plumbers already operates throughout UK and has been contacted by householders looking for other skilled tradeswomen for several years. The Register of Tradeswomen is a direct response to that demand and also aims to support vulnerable householders who feel safer with women.

The platform, One Passport, which has previously been used within highly regulated industries, like health care provision, will ensure the Register is secure and robust. 

The Register will be available to householders from New Year 2021.

Find out more and join here https://registeroftradeswomen.com