Master painter and True Pro Lady –
Jessica Jörges and her path to success as a trades professional

26-year-old Jessica Jörges is a master painter, has been a STABILA True Pro Lady from day one – and now she's set to take over the family business. But how did she end up in a skilled trade and build her successful career?

Interview with Jessica Jörges

"On our first Christmas card, when I was still less than a year old, I was already sitting in a paint bucket." It's obvious right away that Jessica has a close affinity with the painting trade. Her parents run their own painting business, Maler Schmidt GmbH. The business was inherited by her mother, having been founded by her great-grandfather. Her father is also a passionate tradesperson, a multitalented man, according to Jessica. After meeting Jessica's mother he decided to retrain as a painter.

Although the family tendency is clear to see, Jessica was given complete freedom to make her own career choices. Although first impressions might suggest otherwise, she wasn't the typical child of parents running their own trade business. Whenever she spent time on the building site, it was because she wanted to be there, not on account of her parents.

In 2016, after passing her school-leaving exams, it was time to decide what she wanted to study or train in – and surprisingly, learning a manual trade wasn't her first idea. Instead, Jessica wanted to go on to higher education. But what should it be, landscape gardening, interior design or business management? She couldn't decide, because nowhere was there a course that was 100 % right for her. So she broadened the search, and this time her shortlist included trades careers. Ultimately, Jessica followed her instinct and in 2016 she was fast-tracked (thanks to her school qualifications) into the second year of a course to become a master painter.

Course to become a master painter

While she was looking for the right training course, Jessica realised that there was far too little information available about individual trades. So at the start of her training she decided to launch her own blog, 'Bunte Zukunft', where she wrote about her day-to-day work as an apprentice. "Using my apprenticeship, we show young people what it involves, because a lot of people probably aren't aware what kind of cool trades careers are available in Germany," says Jessica.

Through a campaign run by the Sparkasse bank she began collaborating with a local web marketing agency, who quickly advised her to expand her blog by starting an Instagram channel. The result was @buntezukunft, which now has almost 10,000 followers.

"It's just not the case that women can't do as much. It's important to show how amazing it is what I can do in my job, how colourful my life is and how I get to shape it."

(Jessica – @buntezukunft)

Eight years later, under the motto "It's up to you how colourful your life is", Jessica is still posting regularly on her projects and her very positive experiences as a woman in a skilled trade. In the meantime she's been busy: in 2018 she completed her apprenticeship with the best marks in her year group and went on to qualify as a master painter, and in 2019 she took part in WorldSkills in Kazan, Russia.

She doesn't yet have any concrete plans to take over her parents' business, but her father would like to gradually retire. Like Jessica, he has a second skill set, travelling all over the country to tackle mould problems.

Woman in a skilled trade
Interview Collage with Jessica and STABILA workers

One thing is clear: Jessica loves what she does. She describes her job as very varied, because every project is different. The fact that she can always take on new challenges means that she can learn new things. The only thing she still needs to work on, according to Jessica, is her patience. She describes herself as a bit of a perfectionist, but also believes that everyone grows into their role.

We're proud to have had Jessica on board as part of the True Pro Ladies team for five years now, and to be able to collaborate with her. With her dedication, energy and passion for the job, she stands for the very values that STABILA aims to showcase through the True Pro Ladies campaign. "It's just not the case that women can't do as much. It's important to show how amazing it is what I can do in my job, how colourful my life is and how I get to shape it," says Jessica.