Network Homes celebrates National Apprenticeship Week

For National Apprenticeship Week, we caught up with our apprentice, Israel Aguirre-Taipe, to find out how taking on an apprenticeship has boosted his skills and opened new doors. Israel joined SW9 in September 2017 as a Community Engagement Apprentice. 

Israel said: “Before I joined SW9 I was doing some volunteering there. While volunteering, I knew I wanted to run projects during summer holidays for young people around the area and I was encouraged by the Resident Engagement and Communications Officer at SW9 to apply for the role of apprentice.”

“Since working at SW9, I have become much more organised in my work and have gained a new insight into the social housing sector. During my first month I worked alongside the Customer Services team, took part in some tenancy audits and also shadowed the repairs team. It was really interesting to see everything that goes into getting a repair done and how we try to ensure the best outcome for every resident.”

“One of my main projects is around youth engagement. I’m in the process of organising more activities for young people to take part in - getting this off the ground is taking a lot of planning and research but I’m excited to see how this goes. I’ve been networking with different organisations that could help provide extra services to the community or to partner with on events.”

“I’m really proud of my work in the Resident Engagement and Communications team. We get to organise a range of activities and events for residents. The most recent winter activities we organised were very well received and the Customer Service team gave us feedback that residents often ask about upcoming activities.”

“Going forward, I want to continue to do community work and work with social enterprises.”