Opportunity knocks
Tough times notwithstanding, the south east’s housing associations remain committed to keeping their apprenticeship schemes open. Lydia Stockdale looks at what the willing will find on offer
‘Any private developer bidding for government support in the second kick-start programme [must] offer apprenticeships and local jobs recruitment’ housing minister John Healey announced last autumn.
Mr Healey calculated this would provide an extra 1,500 apprenticeships through the residential and commercial development.
Forward-thinking housing associations with existing apprenticeship schemes gave themselves a pat on the back after Mr Healey’s speech. Many of those without such schemes went about setting one up.
Last month, however, the National Housing Federation announced that planned cuts in public spending would lead to 278,000 jobs and apprenticeships in the construction industry being lost or not created in the first place.
Yet despite pressures on finances, housing associations in the south east remain committed to their apprenticeship schemes. Most of the up-and-running apprenticeships focus on the recession-struck construction industry, but increasingly landlords are setting up schemes using apprentices in a wider variety of roles, including community involvement and facilities management.
Some, including Look Ahead Housing and Care, which provides residential and support services in London and the south east, are offering apprenticeships to would-be health and care staff.
Launched last September, Look Ahead believes its newbies will help the organisation to meet its customers’ needs as they are given increasing amounts of choice under the ever-expanding bespoke service agenda.
‘The apprentice programme is for front-end staff who want to work in support services,’ says Valerie Raven-Hill, the executive director responsible for human resources at the organisation. ‘We launched our graduate programme four years ago, and with our apprenticeship programme we are tapping into a broader market of talent.’
A total of 185 people applied for nine places on the 12-month apprenticeship. The successful applicants, including Nashir Miah, took part in an assessment task designed to show whether they were able to work well in a team.
They also went through a verbal and numerical tests followed by a series of ‘speed interviews’ with Look Ahead employees and service-users. Applications for the 2010 scheme - no previous experience of housing or care necessary - are now open and the organisation expects to hear from hundreds more individuals of all ages and backgrounds willing to undergo this rigorous recruitment process.
Apprentices spend four days a week working in one of Look Ahead’s accommodation-based services, and one day studying towards a NVQ in health and social care at Kensington and Chelsea College.
‘We hire people based on their attitudes. We would rather take people with a strong passion for the work we do and then train them up with the skills,’ says Ms Raven-Hill.
‘In the current economic climate there is a huge amount of talent out there,’ she adds. ‘Any organisation not looking at ways to access that is missing a trick.’
Hands-on experience
Nashir Miah, 25, works at Gateway Foyer, a 116-bed hostel for vulnerable and homeless young people aged between 18 and 25 in Southwark, London.
‘This job makes me feel good. It gives me the drive I need to get up in the morning and get to work. I help the residents access the services they need to get a fresh start in life, and because of my age, they feel I can relate to them.
‘I found out about the apprentice scheme on the internet when I was at university. I’d finished my second year and was going into my third when I decided not to. A lot of people I know have finished their degrees and they’re not using them - I can finish my degree at any time.’
Other south east apprentice schemes
Circle Anglia
All of the housing association’s contractors are obliged to offer at least one apprenticeship per £800,000 of contract value. The landlord currently runs apprenticeships in construction with 15 places, but is working with the government’s National Apprenticeship Service with the aim of providing apprenticeships in housing and community work.
Southern Housing Group
The group’s graduate development programme, which takes on two or three people per year, has been running since 2001. In April it will pilot its first traineeship scheme along with an intern scheme. Participants in these are likely to work in community regeneration, operations, housing management and facilities management.
Peabody
Although Peabody already works with its contractors to provide apprenticeships, it is developing a formal organisation-wide apprenticeship programme, and it is aiming for apprentices to take around 5 per cent of all new job vacancies.
Affinity Sutton
Last year the organisation teamed up with contractor Rydon and electrical sub contractor JP Garrett to offer three apprenticeships in and around Sussex. The organisation is now planning to expand the scheme, taking on 15 new apprenticeships. More than 600 graduates applied for six places on the landlord’s graduate trainee scheme last year. As yet, there has been no decision on this year’s intake.
A2Dominion
This landlord offers a paid administrator position for six months within its community involvement team with funding from the government’s
Future Job Fund, which aims to help prevent young people from becoming long-term unemployed.
Notting Hill Housing
The association set up its construction training initiative in 1995. The two-year scheme is for unemployed people over 18 years of age who live in Barnet, Brent, Hammersmith and Fulham, Hounslow, Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster.
South east special
Articles in this week’s special focus on the south east
Within weeks of taking over as chief executive of Aldwyck Housing Association, Harj Singh found himself having to calm an organisation rocked by a race storm. Kicking off our special focus on the south east, Martin Hilditch talks to the man with his eyes firmly on the horizon.
He has used his constituency to talk up the Conservatives’ ideas on national housing policy, but are the voters in shadow housing minister Grant Shapps’ back yard impressed with his ideas? Lydia Stockdale went to meet them.
Last month London Mayor Boris Johnson announced the capital is on track to deliver 50,000 new affordable homes by 2012. But is his delivery policy really working? Here, Tory and Labour representatives go head-to-head over the controversial targe
Short notice Audit Commission inspectors can pop up any time, anywhere. And the south east has had the lion’s share of snap visits. Neil Merrick sifts through the evidence
Tough times notwithstanding, the south east’s housing associations remain committed to keeping their apprenticeship schemes open. Lydia Stockdale looks at what the willing will find on offer
Housing associations in the south of England are on track to meet their decent homes targets and so are now focusing on retrofitting, writes Andrew Lambert.
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