We’re part of the 20% Movement, a Greater Manchester Housing Providers’ (GMHP) pledge to increase the number of social housing tenants working in their organisations so that they represent 20% of their colleague bases by 2036. This is to reflect the importance of representing the communities we serve, and for the invaluable insight those with lived experience of social housing can bring.
Throughout March, Great Places and other GMHPs have come together to host careers events in community centres across Greater Manchester.
An overview of all the events is to come, and on Friday 20 March, it was our turn to take a lead – alongside Onward, Clarion and Together Housing – to host one of the several careers events. This took place at Brotherton House in the middle of Salford and provided customers and other social housing tenants the chance to drop in and find out about the range of career opportunities in housing.
Representatives from Great Places, Onward and Together Housing were there to talk about their roles in the fields of learning and development, repairs, neighbourhoods, facilities, community investment and development.
Other partners in attendance were Salford Employment Hub. This organisation offers employability support to Salford residents aged 16 and over, tailored to various points in individual’s journeys towards employment and working with employers to help them get there. Hays Recruitment (who partner with Onward) were also on hand to discuss vacancies and offer support with CV-writing.
As well as this, representatives from Clarion Housing were on hand in a separate setting to deliver a longer information session about the sector as a whole and put the event and the 20% movement into context; encouraging and illustrating to attendees the value they can bring to the sector as individuals with lived experience.
Lots of Salford residents, many of them our customers, turned up keen to learn more about the opportunities available. There was a mix of ages and levels of experience, with some looking to return to roles they had done in the past, and others keen to try something new. Andrew Smith had worked in driver-related jobs for 16 years, including for Royal Mail and Amazon, and after speaking with representatives, registered interest to apply for two apprenticeships in the fields of customer services and as an electrician. He commented:
“I came here today with an open mind, and I’ve now registered my interest to apply for two different apprenticeship roles – they both would push me to learn new skills, which is great!”
Another attendee remarked:
“It’s really great to network, and it’s great that you guys are doing this, it’ll be really helpful for lots of people.”
The day was a success, thanks to the hard work of all our partners, colleagues and particularly Gill Rimmer, Employability Coach Team Leader, and Sarah from Together Housing who pulled it all together. Gill commented:
“We wanted to give our customers a flavour of what it’s like to work in social housing and the breadth of opportunities available to them. I think we really pulled this off and there was such a positive energy in the room and some great conversations happening.
The 20% Movement is such an exciting project to be involved in and I hope that we can continue to encourage our customers to explore this further.”
