Building the futures with apprenticeships

We believe that apprenticeships are a great way to develop home-grown talent. For National Apprenticeship Week, we caught up with Deanish, one of our new property services apprentices.

Tell us a little bit about yourself

“I am Deanish (pronounced Din-esh), I’m 39 years and I’m a mother of three. I have always enjoyed DIY, I think that came from my Dad, he worked in the trades, mainly electrical. I’m constantly doing DIY in my own home and love property renovation programmes, so from that I realised that my passion could also become a job.”

How did you get started?

“To get started I enrolled on the Nottingham City Homes Women in Construction course which took place at Nottingham Skills Academy in March 2022. As a result of doing a Women in Construction Taster Day at NSA, I then enrolled onto their CSCS Card and Multi Skills course. This was a six week long full-time course. At the end of it I gained valuable experience and a CSCS (Construction Skills Certification Scheme) card. I then started looking for a job opportunity in this area.”

Why did you apply for the apprenticeship at NCHA?

“A friend of mine saw the apprentice jobs at NCHA advertised and sent me a link. I immediately decided to apply and was lucky enough to get the job. I’d previously been doing warehouse work for Marks and Spencer, but I wanted a job I could develop into a career and I think I’ve found that now. I know I’ve started an apprenticeship later in life than many people, but I wanted to normalise that for others. There are no set rules when you must do things in life, we all find our own way.”

What do you enjoy about your role?

“I’m really enjoying my apprenticeship, getting to learn a variety of trades and work with a variety of people. I’d say painting and decorating comes most natural to me, I guess because I’ve done that the most at home, but I’m also really enjoying learning plastering. I hate mould with a passion, so I find dealing with that more difficult, but I also appreciate that getting rid of mould can make one of the biggest differences to a person’s living environment so it’s very worthwhile.

“I like working with the different teams at NCHA. I’ve found everyone has a strong work ethic and respects each other. I know that there aren’t many women working ‘on the tools’ in Property Services at the moment (both at NCHA and the industry in general), so I hope I can be an example to others who might be interested but hadn’t seriously considered starting a career in this area.

“I don’t actually see the other three apprentices very often, only when we have our day in college once a month, but I think we have a good mixtures of skills and personalities. We meet a wide variety of customers in our roles and I really value being able to help them improve their homes as I know how important a decent home is to me too.”

What are your ambitions for the future?

“I’d like to progress in my career and ultimately become a team leader or manager. I believe that having started at the bottom and doing a range of jobs, gives me a great foundation to manage others.”