The newest student cohort at the Boat Building Academy (BBA) in Lyme Regis, Dorset comprises eight women and seven men. The number of women enrolled previously was four - and for two years there were no female students at all. The rise in female applicants at the BBA is the result of a new Diversity and Inclusivity mission launched just over a year ago by the BBA and Belinda Joslin, founder of Women in Boatbuilding (WIBB).
Members of the new cohort outside the BBA in Lyme Regis (Image: Boat Building Academy) A five-day Women’s Workshop course now runs annually for women to try their hand at woodworking, before committing to further study. Furthermore, a new bursary scheme exclusively for women is making it possible for a growing number of women to meet the cost of the course. Student Sophia Harding from Portsmouth is just 17.
Determined to enter a ‘practical’ career she dropped out of sixth form, taught herself to sail and bought an old boat, which she single-handedly restored last winter. The BBA’s new women’s bursary scheme has now enabled her to join the 40-week course. She said: “I enrolled on the one-week workshop out of curiosity.
I enjoyed it but had to see how feasible it would be to get a place on the 40-week course, which would require funding the course privately and moving away from home. “The interview with the BBA involved them ascertaining my commitment, and the game changer was when they announced that I had won a 50 per cent bursary. “The hard.
