24-year-old Sunny Franco is now in her fourth year of balancing a refrigeration and air-conditioning apprenticeship with her semi-professional football career with the Newcastle Jets.

A 10,000km road trip around the Northern Territory sparked an interest in diesel mechanics for TAFE NSW student Gabrielle Bridgeman, who is now encouraging other females to take up a trade in 2021.

Being the only woman on a worksite full of tradesmen can be an eye-opening experience. It can also be a surprisingly rewarding one, according to Natalie Creed, a fourth year apprentice builder with Wagga’s Ladex Construction Group.

Across Australia, plumbing is an industry dominated by males with Australian Government statistics revealing less than one per cent of all industry workers are female.