Girls are being encouraged to take up electrical, plumbing and engineering maintenance apprenticeships. JTL, a training company, has already recruited 30 females in South Yorkshire as the Government seeks to make apprenticeship opportunities available to all school-leavers. “We’ve found the girls to be extremely efficient, mature, and academically they cope very well - often better than the boys,” said David Humberstone, managing director of Tilen Electrics, which has taken on three apprentices.