FEATURE ALEXANDRA MADDEN
E very morning, long leave the house at 6.35am,” she says. Her commute from the island of Yell to Lerwick is no small undertaking: a drive to the ferry, 15 minutes across the water, then roughly 30 miles by car to the DITT workshop. “In total it takes me about an hour and a half to get to work every day.” The routine would exhaust many, let alone a teenager in the early years of her apprenticeship. But Madden tackled it with determination. Showing up every day, no matter the distance, weather or hour is simply part of proving herself. before most 18-year-olds have rolled out of bed, Alexandra Madden is already on the move. “I wake up at 6am. I Carving out space on site Madden is “the only lass on site in my company”. In a sector still dominated by men, her presence is significant – not only because she represents the next generation of skilled tradespeople, but because she represents the women who are carving out space on construction sites across the UK. With both International Women’s Day and Scottish Apprenticeship Week falling in March, her story feels especially timely. Madden wasn’t always destined for joinery. It wasn’t until she moved with her family from Blackpool to Shetland that she encountered woodwork as a school subject. “My family decided to move here when I was 13, just for a change of life really. A quieter life,” she says. Coming from England, she explains, “I’d never seen or done any woodwork before. I just helped Dad out in the garage with some of his model cars.” But when she entered the Shetland school system, she was suddenly surrounded by chisels,
Alexandra Madden shares her journey from school woodworking class to carpentry and joinery apprentice
BREAKING GROUND
Master Builder 28
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