A YORK firm has recruited its first female apprentice plumber.

Building services company SES, which has its head office in York, has taken on Faye Mullins as an apprentice. Faye had applied to companies for more than a year-and-a-half in the hope of getting a modern apprenticeship in plumbing, but with no success until she tried SES.

She will now work for the company's Central Region operations in Birmingham and Northampton. Her first experience of site life will be at a £10 million project for DEFRA and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency at Weybridge, Surrey, where she will be partnered with an experienced plumber.

During her apprenticeship Faye will spend two days at college and the rest on-site. In four years she will then qualify as a trained plumber.

Faye, who hails from Slough, said: "It's a very good career and something I was always interested in. There isn't any difference being a girl on-site or at college. My aim is to become a fully-qualified plumber."

Updated: 11:30 Tuesday, June 29, 2004