“The job is super varied”

“You can tell immediately whether a bathroom was planned by a man or a woman,” says Antonella Menrath with a smile. She is a plumbing, heating and air conditioning engineer in Plankstadt, not far from Heidelberg. She explains that you can tell from the amount of space available around the washbasin or from the positioning and size of the shower head whether the planner had considered people with long hair or their need for a hairdryer. This wider perspective is one of the reasons why Menrath wants to see more women in the skilled crafts. 

Menrath is 25 years old and decided to retrain as a plumbing, heating and air conditioning engineer. She has just two more exams to pass and then she will be a master engineer. “There’s no such thing as a typical working day for us,” she explains. The only constant is that she has to start work at her firm early in the morning. “Our building site team takes care of new buildings, renovations and large-scale projects at schools, laboratories or hospitals. And then there are the installers who specialise in customer service.” The customer service team goes out to people’s homes, for example to replace a tap or fix a blocked pipe.  

Computers and chases 

Like all jobs, the skilled crafts are also changing. “The cliché is that building sites are dirty, just like you imagine them being in the past,” says Menrath. Yet this has long ceased to be the case, she adds. “Nowadays everything is dominated by technology. We have digital measuring instruments. You connect the heating system to your laptop to identify any errors. Quite a lot has changed. But of course we still have to chase out walls sometimes. Those typical jobs still need to be done,” explains Menrath. 

The skilled crafts are a profession with a secure future. “Even in a hundred years no robot will be able to do the job so precisely.” Despite all the technology, it is still very much a hands-on job. “Every situation requires a different solution. In one wall I’ll need a different bracket for cables than in the neighbouring flat.  

Growing appreciation 

There is growing appreciation in society for the skilled crafts, says Menrath. “We are key workers.” Plumbing, heating and air conditioning engineers were allowed to continue working during the coronavirus pandemic. That made it clear to many people just how important this job is.  

There is also increasingdiversity in companies. More and more women are opting for a career in their chosen skilled crafts profession. Menrath cannot recommend this highly enough, especially because of the varied nature of the job: “Sometimes we’re up on a roof fitting a solar panel, then we’re in a basement dealing with the heating, or we’re on a big building site or visiting someone at home to repair their water connection. It’s super varied.”