“You’re Hired”: Seven Trafford Housing Trust Apprentices offered jobs!

Published by Becki Ord for Trafford Housing Trust in Housing and also in Communities

THE THT Apprentice has culminated in seven out of the 10 candidates being  offered jobs with Trafford Housing Trust, two more than originally planned, after the candidates proved too good to let go.

After three weeks of tasks, followed by the dreaded interview process, the apprentices have been offered jobs and are set to begin their new careers with the housing association at the end of August.

The aspiring young professionals, who are looking to carve out a career in social housing, have been competing for five jobs on offer at the Trust over recent weeks.

The 10 candidates, all from the Trafford area, have been recruited to the available roles through an innovative recruitment process structured in the style of the BBC reality show “The Apprentice”.

The three week challenge has seen the hopeful candidates, all of whom were formerly unemployed, carry out some exciting challenges.

The tasks set have included designing a two week work experience programme for local school children, selling tickets to a Salford City Reds Rugby match, taking part in a clean-up of the Oldfield Brow Estate, preparing and serving a meal to residents in a sheltered housing scheme, improving an empty property to make it more appealing for a new tenant and to coming up with ideas for a family fun day.

Of the 10 young people, aged 16-19 years old, seven have secured roles with the Trust, after a further two posts were created. They will be working in the following areas – HR, IT, rents, customer involvement, regeneration, neighbourhood involvement and with Rainbow – the Trust’s new furniture recycling scheme.

However, all is not lost for the remaining two candidates as the Trust will continue to work with them to help them secure employment.

The winning candidates are: Laura Smith, who will start in the Customer Hub, Carly-Rae Bothwell, who is joining the Money Support Team, and Macauley Stephenson, who will join the Business Support team.

Jack Mitchell is joining the Regeneration Team, Carrie Lenegan will start in the Organisational Development Team and Amy Neild has secured a role the Customer Involvement Team. The seventh candidate to land a job is Josh Beeston who is going to work with Rainbow, the Trust’s new social enterprise which is re-cycling furniture.

Some of the apprentices have already started in their new roles while the others will begin in the coming weeks.

Matthew Gardiner, Chief Executive of Trafford Housing Trust, said: “The THT Apprentice has been a fantastic experience for the young people involved and the Trust. It has given us a real insight into the strengths of the individuals and also their potential – we saw them all grow and develop during the process.

“The process has put their teamwork, leadership, planning and organisational skills to the ultimate test. They have been given essential life skills to help them prepare for employment, while the practical challenges gave them a good understanding of the Trust’s work.”

At the end of the tasks, each apprentice was interviewed for the role they were interested in. If successful, they were told by Mr Gardiner that they were hired.

He added: “I think they surprised themselves with what they could do and how far they’ve come. It made it impossible for us to choose just five of them! We would like to say good luck to all of the candidates for what is going to be an exciting few weeks for them.”