Housing Apprenticeships

This email has been sent by the Institute of Career Guidance on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Housing

Getting into Housing
The Level 2 Housing Apprenticeships E-Factsheet from The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)

Working in housing isn’t often top of a young person’s careers wish list, yet the housing sector offers an incredible range of satisfying careers options – from delivering a quality housing management service to your tenants, residents and partners, through to helping a young family move into their new home, or supervising the multi-million pound housing development. Housing remains high on the political agenda and so it is more important than ever to attract talent into the profession to help deliver the sustainable affordable housing that it so desperately requires. There are many routes into housing and lots of opportunities for progression once you have landed your first job.

This factsheet focuses on the Level 2 Housing Apprenticeships and is designed for reference and use when considering careers opportunities in the housing sector with your clients.

What is the Level 2 Housing Apprenticeship?
The L2 Housing apprenticeship is a combination of work and study. The study component consists of:

• C&G Level 2 Certificate in Housing QCF (NVQ)
• Functional Skills (England) / Essential Skills ( NI) (English Level 1; Mathematics Level 1; Information Technology Level 1)
• CIH Level 2 Certificate in Housing
• Employment Rights and Responsibilities (ERR) workbook

What kind of work is involved?
At level 2 you could be employed as either an administrative assistant, customer services assistant or as a traditional apprentice. The work is usually office based, but the nature of the work means that you will have a lot of contact with other people in the company or company customers.

What is a housing workplace like?
Front line housing work is usually busy and a bit unpredictable – you never know what problems a customer is going to bring to you. People tend to work in small groups and there is usually a great team spirit and atmosphere, working in housing gives a great sense of satisfaction when you are able to help your tenants and residents and the whole community.

I want to be a housing apprentice! What do I do next?
There are two main ways to become a housing apprentice:

1. You need to find employment in the field of housing and discuss the possibility of doing the apprenticeship with your new employer.
2. You can look for specific apprenticeship vacancies with housing employers. Vacancies can be found on the Apprenticeships website

How do I find employment in housing?
You could try the following:

1. Register with local employment agencies and specify that you are interested in working in housing.
2. Keep up to date with vacancies on the Inside Housing website
3. Keep up to date with vacancies on the Guardian website
4. Keep up to date with vacancies from local housing employers, your local newspaper and local jobs websites
5. Visit the CIH Careers website and download the 'Why Housing' Booklet from the CIH website to find out more about the types of jobs available, where employers advertise and housing courses
6. Alternatively you may wish to send your CV and a covering letter to local housing employers and ask to be put on their mailing list for job vacancies.

Can I do anything to improve my chances?
You could:

1. Look at volunteering with local charitable and voluntary groups which work with homeless or vulnerable people. You should be able to find out who these are by contacting your local voluntary and community action. The National site has a list of local groups
2. Any work experience is valuable. If you can show you are a reliable and enthusiastic worker, you will improve your prospects.
3. Get involved in any community activities run by local housing associations.
4. Visit the Support and Advice page on the Apprenticeships website.

Interested in finding out more about opportunities in the housing sector?

Online information and resources
You can find out more information about the housing sector by visiting the CIH or Asset Skills websites. There are many publications and resources that you can download. One of those resources is a guide, produced by CIH and Ocean Media Group, titled 'Why Housing'. The guide is designed to show the wide variety of rewarding options on offer, the benefits of working for a housing organisation and the support available to help individuals make the most of their housing career. It also includes a number of job profiles of people actually doing just some of the roles in housing.

Download a copy of the Why Housing guide

ICG Insight Day - The Built Environment

Wednesday 23rd November 2011

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) is one of four professional bodies working with ICG to deliver an Insight into Careers in the Built Environment event. The event will be held on Wednesday 23rd November in London. More details on the ICG website.

FREE Careers in Housing E-Bulletin

You can also sign up for the CIH twice yearly FREE Careers in the Housing Sector E-Bulletin. Subscribe and view the latest issue here