Erica van Frankenhuyzen found her passion at the age of 15. Unlike other girls in her class, she took an interest in welding and fell in love with it.
When she enrolled in a college apprenticeship, she wasn’t taken seriously. But now, the 25-year-old is part of the team building the huge playground at Manchester city centre's new Mayfield Park.
Speaking ahead of International Women’s Day on Tuesday, the theme of which, ‘Break the Bias’ encourages people to challenge stereotyping, Erica says women and girls should ‘go for it’ when it comes to getting into careers perceived as just ‘for men’. READ MORE: ‘I left school with three GCSEs - now I'm making millions' “I’m quite feminine, so when I walked in [to the college class] I felt I wasn’t taken seriously at all,” Erica, originally from the Netherlands, told the Manchester Evening News. “They warned me that it’s something I really needed to think about before pursuing, lifting heavy materials, etc.
But I smashed it.” The fascination with welding sparked when her school introduced practical taster sessions for students who were less academic.
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