| By :
Martin Hofschroer
A mother of two from north London is hoping her venture into the plumbing industry will inspire other women to join her. Pauline Brown has been studying on plumbing courses and is The Equal Opportunities Commission and Jive Partners poster girl as part of an initiative to inspire more women into plumbing. Ms Brown is the star of a poster campaign which features an image of her carrying out plumbing work beneath a sink under the tagline: "A woman's place is at the kitchen sink". Watching a plumber fix her broken toilet motivated Ms Brown to investigate plumbing courses and she has been taking the NVQ 6129 level 2 in order to progress onto NVQ Level 3. Ms Brown told the BBC: "I was fascinated with what he was doing. I knew then that's what I wanted to do, it was like a calling." Entering a male dominated profession has not been easy for Ms Brown but with quiet determination she started to change people's preconceptions about women and manual work. Pauline Brown's family was at first wary about the thought of her joining the plumbing industry but they now express their pride at her career choice. "Initially the children were embarrassed about their mum turning up in overalls and a hard hat, but now my daughter says all her friends think it's really cool," Ms Brown told the BBC. Ms Brown has also been studying gas training courses which will qualify her to undertake gas installation and repair in order to expand her skill set and improve her employability. A plumbing and electrical business owner has been aiming to inspire the next generation of plumbers and sparks by creating his first children's book, reported the Manchester Evening News. Chris Tomlinson, who owns Altrincham-based firm Country and Town, has authored the book Percy Pulls the Plug which follows the adventures of apprentice plumber Percy Pipe. Chris Tomlinson hopes that his book will encourage children to consider taking plumbing courses and electrical courses when they leave school. He told the newspaper: "We're keen to make sure a level of competence in plumbing and electrical work can be sustained in years to come. "Without an influx of young people into the training system, we're in danger of finding ourselves without the skills to offer clients an accurate, safe and effective job." Mr Tomlinson is in the process of creating his next book starring the character Victor Voltage and hopes to turn his stories into a ten edition series.
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