Education, Employment and the Future Beyond Covid

Friday, April 30, 2021

One of the things our property services teams have missed most of all over the past year is the chance to work with school and college students as much as we usually would. Our education engagement programmes are normally an important and highly enjoyable feature of our partnership working.

While a lot of attention is focused on the amount of formal learning that students have missed, we’re only too aware of how broader opportunities to understand the world of work have also suffered.

Hopefully, Covid-19 is gradually on the retreat and we resume a full range of activities in the near future. In the meantime, we’ve still been getting involved where we can through fundraising and other activities.

The education programmes we deliver are very much driven by the needs of the communities we work in. They are targeted at themes including safety, work tasters and awareness of future employment opportunities.

Many communities face a difficult time as they strive to overcome the impact of the pandemic. Raising awareness of career pathways and expanding local employment opportunities are vital. They are activities that property services teams are uniquely placed to deliver.

Being embedded in local communities over many years means that our ties with local education institutions become highly developed. We can invest more time to ensure that the social value we deliver makes a meaningful and lasting impact.

Increasing Diversity

Schools engagement is particularly important in the current economic climate. There are major skills shortages within the construction industry and the range of skills needed in a modern property services organisation is increasingly varied. Promoting diversity and inclusion is a priority. A sector that some young people might not have considered could have a role they would be well suited to – they just don’t know it yet.

As well as seeing the immediate employment opportunities, meeting staff at different levels and in different roles also gives a flavour of the many directions that a career in construction can take.

The nature of construction and the way that social housing property services will be delivered in future are evolving rapidly. Stereotypical ideas of what working in construction might mean need to be challenged so that young people see the diverse range of opportunities on offer.

Across all of our property services partnerships we offer work placements and tasters, employability workshops, careers fairs, apprenticeships and opportunities to join our team as a trainee. It’s an important feature of how we work and we can’t wait to get back to a full programme.