Trainee season for housing

Inside Housing’s Homes Work campaign has focused the industry’s attention on apprenticeships. It’s an opportunity to highlight successes, identify improvements and consider how the sector is changing.

Homes Work represents a milestone on a journey accelerated by the Public Services Act (Social Value) 2012 which placed training, local recruitment and community partnership at the heart of procurement and specification.

The act rightly encourages local authorities and registered providers to demand more apprenticeships. But, unsurprisingly, the qualitative impact and real outcomes for communities are more challenging to address. We need to ensure quality of training, durability of skills and the long-term success of any scheme.

One less publicised government initiative is traineeships - a flexible pre-apprenticeship learning scheme. Launched last August by MP Matthew Hancock, minister for skills, these offer unemployed 16 to 24-year-olds up to six months’ training across English and maths, practical work experience and employability skills. Employers partner with colleges rated by Ofsted as either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, and teaching is funded through the adult skills budget.

The advantages for trainees are significant - keep your jobseeker’s allowance, boost your qualifications, and try a specialism before committing to an apprenticeship. However, only 3,300 traineeships have been delivered to date.

I suspect this owes, first, to employers’ limited awareness and understanding of traineeships. Second, there are challenges in partnering with some colleges and Jobcentres that are yet to incorporate the scheme into existing practices. Third, providing work experience presents logistical difficulties for organisations that work with a range of sub-contractors and small and medium enterprises.

At Lakehouse, we’ve used the flexibility of traineeships to ensure the initiative works for us as a contractor. Partnering closely with Barking and Dagenham College, we created a multi-skill traineeship, including a range of trades, with work experience delivered in week-long blocks to suit the intensive nature of construction. This works more effectively than day release.

Variety and intensity are part of our daily lives in housing. We believe building these relationships and delivering training at this stage will support our ability to recruit and retain quality apprentices, as well as improving their long-term employability.

The government’s central aim is to prevent a ‘forgotten generation’, lacking skills and suffering long-term unemployment.

For us, traineeships also develop a more holistic approach to social value, bringing business and community together. The message is clear - the housing industry should get on board.

Carol Bailey is director of communities and regeneration at Lakehouse