School & College Leavers
So you’re leaving school: what next?
It’s coming to the time when you’ll need to be thinking about a
home for yourself. If you’ve looked into it already, you’ll know
that it isn’t as easy as it seems. Even if you can afford a
mortgage – and that’s a tough one for people just starting their
careers – you still need some cash of your own, or you won’t get
the mortgage. Tricky. So the chances are you’ll be renting, perhaps
from a private landlord, or maybe from a housing association.
Housing associations offer the kind of housing that used to be
known as ‘council housing’ although councils have long since passed
over responsibility for these houses to private organisations – and
these are housing associations.
It takes a lot of organisation to manage the often-huge number
of properties owned by a housing association. There are people to
plan communities; people to look after the houses themselves;
people to care for those that need it, and people to keep the
peace; people to paint, plaster and sort out gardens. And on top of
those, there are the people who run the associations: managers,
finance people, IT experts, and admin staff. There might not be so
many rocket scientists or surgeons in housing, but there’s a whole
world of careers to be had. And you could be part of it.
How to get into housing
One good way to get a job in housing is to have a look around
this website – lots of housing associations are members of
1001careers, and they advertise jobs here. There are bound to be
some housing associations in your area – write a speculative letter
to them and see if they have anything for you. You could also try
your school careers officer, or have a look in the newspapers; the
main magazine you should look in is Inside Housing and the Guardian
Newspaper on a Wednesday is quite good for housing jobs.
Housing associations are warm, friendly organisations who
believe very strongly in helping their people become as good as
they can be. So there’s plenty of training on offer – you might
even be sent to university. But that doesn’t mean they’ll hire just
anyone: to impress a housing association, you need to be keen,
friendly, ready to do anything if you have no experience, and
caring about the kind of work they do.
Something to think about: huge amounts of people in housing are
going to be retiring in the next five years. That’s a fact. So
who’s going to do the work that needs doing? Someone like you,
perhaps?