When Ida Jespersen was in the 10th grade at Borgerskolen in Maribo, she, like many other young people, was in doubt about what she should do in the future.
– I didn’t really know what to do. I spent a lot of time on that, said Ida Jespersen.
Her mother is a building painter, and Ida then also wanted to apply to the painting school. However, it was a little more difficult than that.
– I had to get an apprenticeship right away. So I thought that then I had to finish 10th grade. After that, my father suggested that I could come over and work for him, while I thought a bit about the cases, says Ida Jespersen.
Dad is a contractor
Ida Jespersen’s father has a construction company, and she soon found out that the apple had not fallen far from the tree.
– I actually think it was quite fun to get in the ground and work with big machines, says the civil engineering student who, despite his long, fine salon nails, is not afraid to get on an equal footing with the boys.
The heart is on Lolland
Ida Jespersen got a contact at the Fehmarn site, went and introduced herself, got an apprenticeship and started at CELF in August last year. In January, she moved from the school desk into the dumper on the construction site, and she hasn’t looked back.
– I would like to continue working here, and I will immediately be living here in Lolland. After all, this is where my heart is. It always will be, she explains, patting her chest.
One of the boys
When Ida Jespersen drives to work, she is one of the boys. As one of two female civil engineering apprentices at Femernbyggeriet in Rødbyhavn, and as the only girl in the class at CELF in Nykøbing, she has long since fallen into the lingo.
– At first, they just had to look at me a bit. But I took a bit of a piss on them, and then I was one of the boys. They just had to see how much they could joke with me.
Got her own playground
But Ida Jespersen would still like to see more girls in the profession.
– The girls are probably a little more focused on how it will look afterwards, while the boys just see something that needs to be done, and then they just do it.
Invented the “caressing stick”
On the site, students also get the opportunity to come up with their suggestions for new methods that can make work easier.
– We have found a method for when you have to stamp under a pipe. Here we bend a metal rod, and then we can get into the very small cracks where we cannot otherwise get in. We call that a caressing stick, she laughs and assures that it is one of the boys in the class who came up with the name.
– It will probably be a bit difficult to keep a straight face for the exam if I have to explain what we use it for.
