Stonbury and Women and Manual Trades: Creating Opportunities for Women in the North East

Stonbury is a specialist contractor delivering repairs, maintenance and infrastructure projects across the UK within the water and environmental sectors. As part of its commitment to building a more diverse workforce, Stonbury partnered with Women and Manual Trades (WAMT), a Procure Plus initiative, to recruit more women into operational roles in the North East.

Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in manual trade and operational roles. Many face barriers including limited awareness of career opportunities, lack of access to training, and difficulty securing employment without previous experience or qualifications.

Working together to create opportunities

Women and Manual Trades worked closely with Stonbury and Bernicia Housing Association to deliver a targeted recruitment campaign for operative roles in the Morpeth area.

Bernicia helped promote the opportunities locally and engage residents who could benefit from employment in the sector, while WAMT managed the recruitment process from start to finish. Vacancies were promoted through specialist job boards and social media channels to reach women who may not traditionally have considered a career in the industry.

The campaign generated a strong pool of candidates, leading to a dedicated recruitment day where applicants were interviewed directly by Stonbury. By the end of the day, three women had been offered roles.

To ensure there were no barriers to starting work, Women and Manual Trades funded the training required for the successful candidates so they could begin their new roles fully prepared and qualified.

Lasting impact

All three women successfully started employment with Stonbury and remain with the organisation today. They have developed new skills, gained industry qualifications and progressed within their roles.

The project provided more than just employment opportunities. It helped the candidates build confidence, gain stability and establish long-term careers within a traditionally male-dominated sector. For Stonbury, the campaign demonstrated the value of inclusive recruitment practices and helped broaden its workforce by attracting talented individuals from an underrepresented group.

The partnership between Women and Manual Trades, Bernicia and Stonbury shows how employers, housing organisations and specialist employability providers can work together to remove barriers and create sustainable pathways into work. The fact that all three women remain employed and continue to develop in their careers highlights the long-term impact that targeted recruitment, funded training and strong local partnerships can achieve.

Employer perspective

“Working with Women and Manual Trades has been a fantastic experience. They supported our campaign to recruit female operatives in the North East by managing the entire campaign across job boards and social media platforms. After providing a strong shortlist, we held a recruitment day where we interviewed all the candidates. By the end of the day, we successfully extended three job offers and Women and Manual Trades supported us in funding their required training. It was a hugely successful campaign, and it’s wonderful to see those candidates still with us today, growing and developing in their roles.”

Georgie Field, Talent Manager