Women: Training and Upskilling

Lord Cormack Excerpts

Monday 25th June 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

I agree completely with what the noble Baroness has said, and I will continue to make sure that we watch what is going on. I visited a building site recently where women who had been long-term unemployed were training as electricians. I was very taken with a mother and daughter who decided to make a team, because they realised that most electricians were male and put all the plugs in the wrong places. They were going to set up their own business, because they think it would be rather good to have a woman electrician coming to a woman’s flat or house at night, and making sure that the hairdryer is going to be plugged in at the right place.

[Lord Cormack]

My Lords, while I congratulate my noble friend and applaud her aspirations and achievements, is it really necessary to downgrade the English language in order to upskill these women?

[Baroness Wilcox]

There is no doubt that the world is moving on and we just have to learn new words such as upskilling.