EP #54 – Why A Trade Beats University Now More Than Ever w/ Daisy Turner
📑 Table of Contents
TOC
📑 Table of Contents
Overview
Her headteacher called her into the office and told her she was too smart to do construction. She became a plumber anyway, and went on to win national competitions, volunteer in Nepal, become a brand ambassador and a UK board director, all while holding down a full-time apprenticeship.
Daisy Turner joins Tulloch to talk about what getting into the trade actually looks like in 2026, and why the apprenticeship system needs a serious rethink.
Highlights
Why apprenticeships aren’t working as well as they should
- (1:18) – What coming into the trade in 2026 is really like. CITB levies cover carpentry but not plumbing or electrical apprentices, making it difficult for employers.
- (3:08) – Why colleges only get the final 20–25% of funding once a student completes.
- (21:24) – What’s holding the industry back: a new apprentice knocks back the engineer’s earnings, so there needs to be a real incentive to take one on.
- (22:54) – The break-even point: Apprentices become useful at six months, but profit is typically only made in the last two years of a four-year course.
Daisy’s experience in the trades
- (6:58) – No plan at school, a plumber on hand, and a snap decision that stuck.
- (9:00) – Schools pushing students towards university, not the trades.
- (9:40) – Why paying for her own Level 2 diploma didn’t help (it wasn’t an NVQ).
- (10:40) – Has being female been an issue? Plus workarounds for bending 22mm pipe and heavy lifting.
- (26:54) – Advice for female apprentices, including older women changing careers.
The gap between college and the real world
- (11:53) – Why no two days are the same, from bathrooms to boiler rip-outs.
- (12:20) – The biggest gap: colleges only have shiny new parts, so apprentices never see a broken one before fixing it. Her fix: engineers donating broken parts to colleges.
Competitions, networking and putting yourself out there
- (14:13) – How a first competition snowballed into winning HiP Learner of the Year and Female Skills in one year.
- (18:26) – Most engineers don’t know these opportunities exist. Daisy won a bursary her whole class was offered but nobody else applied for.
Advice if you’re thinking about an apprenticeship
- (26:01) – If you’re considering it, give it a shot. The many directions plumbing can take you. Don’t wait for adverts, but approach companies directly.
- (29:00) – Why she’d pick a sole trader over a big firm like Pimlico Plumbers, where apprentices become “just a number”.
- (30:02) – The apprentice ladder: fetching tools, anticipating needs, then running jobs yourself.