Blog
A Whole New World!
I caught a conversation on Facebook the other day. Someone was asking what a fair price to pay a plumber was. Of course, I dived right in there. The price she'd been quoted I considered high; more than what our Stopcocks Woman Plumber in her area would charge. I told...
Why Train Women Plumbers?
This is Lilian Baumbach, the first woman who trained to Master Plumber level in 1951 in USA. There is no record of the first woman to train as a plumber in UK although we know that a woman plumber helped Jewish refugees escape from Nazi Germany during WW11, so women...
World Toilet Day 19th November
World Toilet Day is becoming more widely recognised every year, and something we focus on every year at Stopcocks Women Plumbers. But surely, a toilet should be for life not just one day a year? Here in the UK we take toilets and effective sanitation for granted,...
Plumbing Catch 22 – Work Based Learning
Without work based learning training in plumbing is as useful as learning to drive in a car park and never going out on the road. It doesn't matter that your workshop training was brilliant, if you don't have the opportunity to hone your skills in real life, you won't...
Plumber Training Ethics
A woman in Scotland contacted us. She'd just signed up with a large private training institution to train as a plumber here in England. I know there's a difference in the qualifications in England from in Scotland, so I checked. I found that a plumber who has...
Becoming An Apprentice Plumber
Trainees contact us an a daily basis asking about becoming an apprentice plumber with us. I'm sorry to have to burst your bubble. In spite of what the government tell us, apprenticeships in plumbing (more so than many other trades) are about as rare as a black rhino....
Training to Be a Plumber 2
As if finding your way through the minefield of where to train isn't enough, what most trainee plumbers aren't aware of is that they have to have or find work as a plumber to qualify. Some courses insist a prospective trainee plumber has work of some sort lined up...
Training to Be a Plumber 1
Finding your way through all the training so that you can become a plumber can be very confusing. At Stopcocks we provide what we believe to be the only map through as well as impartial advice and a great alternative to money down the pan. Right now, the training to...
Is Good Service Enough?
Is good service enough? Sadly, it seems that in the plumbing trade what most customers remember are the bad experiences even if they've received good service from you. Customers are being taught by the media and unscrupulous traders that they will be ripped off, sold...
Extraordinary Customer Service
In the construction industry customer service isn't taught. In fact our trainee builders, plumbers electricians receive exceedingly poor customer service from the majority of training institutions and companies. Since most have little life experience outside this...