girls on the tools
AUSTRALASIAN
C AFÉ S C HO O L
by Sean Edwards – Managing Director Café Culture International.
position as an electrician, plumber or a refrigeration mechanic. Due to this reason the bulk of these trade people are men, because thirty years ago it was a man-dominated area.
I started my working life as an electrician in the coal mines in the Upper Hunter and it was a job for boys only. Late in the 1980’s they introduced trade apprenticeships for girls. At the time, companies ran slogans like ‘Give a Girl a Spanner’. Forty years on and I am in another industry - coffee - and you don’t really see women in the role as a coffee technician. I don’t believe it has been a ‘no go zone’ because of equal workplace practice, I think it’s been because of the lack of training courses which encourage skills in this particular role. Most people who are coffee techs have come from a trade
The Australasian Café School recently ran a beginners introductory class to train as a coffee technician, at their Port Macquarie base, there were four registered attendees and three were women. All three had served years in the coffee industry and were looking at ways of expanding their overall industry knowledge. Joli from Ipswich, Queensland has been in many roles in the coffee industry, as a roaster, Q –grader 20
