JTL, one of the leading apprenticeship providers in the building services engineering sector in England and Wales, is marking International Women’s Day (March 8th) with the announcement of its new Period Equity Project that introduces free measures for anyone experiencing their period in JTL centres.
The Absorbent Hygiene Product Manufacturers Association (AHPMA) estimates that around 4.3 billion sanitary items are used in the UK each year, and that the lifetime cost of buying period-related products ranges from around £5,000 to £18,500 per person. *
JTL is looking to help mitigate this cost through the installation of new machines in bathroom spaces across JTL centres. These vend machines, or ‘care boxes’, will function as free dispensary stations for sanitary products. Period Equity Symbols will be placed outside bathroom spaces containing these care boxes, and information explaining these symbols will be rolled out across the JTL centre network.
Rachel Jagger-Thomas, Diversity, Safeguarding & Inclusion Advisor at JTL, said: “Menstruation is a fact of life for around 50% of the UK population, and on average they will occur for 37.5 years of those people’s lives. The reality is that no matter how well-organised people are, periods can occur at any time, and this can cause an unwelcome interruption for people who would prefer to be focussing on their training or work.
“Our care boxes look to help in those instances without any expectation of a financial return. Independent Training Providers are currently not able to access support for the provision of sanitary products in the same way that a college can. As a charity, however, we believe that this is the right thing to do, and fits with our charitable objectives in terms of seeking to ensure equality of opportunity for everyone.
“We want both our staff and learners to feel welcomed and safe within our spaces, and any barrier to that which we can recognisably remove we will direct our full and immediate attention to.”
JTL centres are located across England and Wales, with dedicated training facilities in areas including Telford, Hull, Eastbourne, Worthing, Norwich, Carlisle, York, Barnsley, Nottingham, Birmingham, Oxford, Orpington, Maidstone, and Ashford. For further information about JTL, visit www.jtltraining.com.
