AUNT and niece duo Georgia and Kadian Hunter from McGregor Gardens in Vineyard Town, Kingston, are looking forward to full-time careers as electricians.

They are both enrolled in the HEART/NTA electrical installation course at Operation Friendship in Kingston, which is sponsored by Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) and Jamaica Public Service under the Step Up project.

For Georgia, a 43-year-old mother of a 20-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son, neither age nor sex is a barrier to her unconventional goals. She is planning to specialise in solar and transformer installations after completing the JPS-sponsored programme.

“I am a person who is always taking on challenges. Anything a man can do, I always want to do the same and I do really well,” she commented, noting that she was awarded for good performnce on completion of a course in repairing small appliances at Excelsior College.

Georgia’s niece, 28 year old Kadian, is midway in the training. She has already completed level one, for which she received a certificate for outstanding performance, and is slated to complete level two by December.

“I just chose a skill, took a chance,” she said.

“I like the challenge. Most have [electricity] as a man skill, but it does not really matter to me. I find it interesting and exciting. I enjoy it very much. I would encourage other women to do it.”

Kadian, also a mother of two, says that she knows other women “are afraid of the current”. “But I tell them once they get the detailing they will manage it. Electrician is a good trade. If you fall into a proper company or with someone working as an electrician you can get good money for it,” she said.

She expects to complete level three by summer 2016.

The Step Up programme has also thrown a lifeline to 25-five-year-old Nathaniel Bundy, also of McGregor Gardens. He is looking forward to doing level two of the training programme. As father of a three-month-old son, Bundy is concerned about providing for the child and said he is looking forward to a well-paid career on conclusion of the training.

“It is very good for me… it is a means of getting a skill and learning something new. I used to do air conditioning installation with my uncle. This is a way of extending my knowledge,” he commented.

Step Up was launched in November 2014 with the goal of facilitating the regularisation of electricity supply in seven inner-city communities in Kingston and St Andrew — McGregor Gardens, Denham Town, Tower Hill, Arnett Gardens, Whitfield Town, Payne Land, and Majesty Gardens.

The aim is to improve residents’ ability to access legal electricity service and pay their electricity bills.

Omar Sweeney, managing director of JSIF, explained that the project represents a departure from the previous strategies, which included the identification and prosecution of illegal users and the disconnection of street lights.

“Step Up will finance the delivery of infrastructure, services, and civil works relevant to the provision of legal electricity connections in the seven selected pilot zones,” he said.

He noted that the project includes training and employment for selected community residents.

School Administrator at Operation Friendship, Dainty-Ann Green, said that the current crop of residents chosen for training should have completed the course in 13 months.

“They will be working with JPS to wire homes and anything electrical,” she said, pointing out that training involves an internship with the power company.

House wiring will only take place in McGregor Gardens. Where necessary, GEI recertification of beneficiary households will take place in the other six communities.