Meet Zeeshan, Learning and Organisational Development Apprentice
Housing 21 are proud to offer a variety of in-house and external learning and development programmes, including apprenticeships. Apprenticeships help our employees learn new skills whilst getting on-the-job experience to progress in their chosen career patOne of our new subject offerings is a Learning and Organisational Development (L&OD) Apprenticeship, which Zeeshan has recently started. He shares why hechose the apprenticeship route to strive towards his career goals.
“I decided to go down the apprenticeship route because I wanted the opportunity to learn whilst also being able to develop my skills through hands-on experience. I’m someone who enjoys learning on-the-job as opposed to studying from a book.
“The fact that I can do this and obtain a formally recognised qualification was a huge deciding factor for me. Now that I’ve finally started my apprenticeship, I have full confidence that I’ll be able to succeed and progress in my role and this is partly by working alongside professionals in the industry.”
When looking ahead at his two-year Level three L&OD Practitioner Apprenticeship course through the training provider HIT Training.
Zeeshan shares that he is most excited to work within the Housing 21 L&OD Team:
“I’m excited that I’ll be working across all five pillars of the L&OD team, providing me with a vast amount of knowledge and experience which will not only benefit me in the future, but also give me insight into what areas I enjoy most.”
He’s passionate about pursuing a career to provide colleagues with impactful learning and training opportunities within the organisation as he feels that it is crucial to any organisation’s success.
“Whether it’s looking after the wellbeing of your colleagues or providing them with the resources required for them to flourish in their role, this is a job I feel helps make a difference.”
Zeeshan chose to do an apprenticeship in a not-for-profit organisation as he likes that Housing 21 provides affordable housing to older people with good quality homes, and the profits are put back into the organisation to continue to grow. Not only supporting its residents, but also its employees and being recognised as one of Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work in 2024 helped sway his decision:
“I knew that working for Housing 21 would leave me feeling fulfilled with my job at the end of every working day. Along with treating its residents well, Housing 21 are also renowned for doing the same for its employees, as shown by being ranked Glassdoor’s third Best Place to Work in the UK for 2024.
“You often hear stories about apprentices being mistreated in the workplace or being left to work on menial tasks, which can cast doubt about joining any organisation or company. After reading about Housing 21, I had no doubt that I would be treated well here and would be provided with a platform to grow.”
The biggest change for Zeeshan has been adapting to remote working:
“The largest difference in this role is the online interactions with everyone.
“Although I’m happy being able to work from home, and this is a real benefit rather than commuting into the office every day, to go from face-to-face to having most of my meetings online is a huge change and one that I am quickly becoming comfortable with.”
Zeeshan has enjoyed his first few weeks within the organisation, one of the things he has enjoyed most is the people:
“Everyone has been so kind and supportive, especially my manager, helping to make me feel welcome and comfortable with asking questions. I have been given the opportunity to have introductory meetings with managers from different teams and been invited to visit some of the schemes.
“I’m very excited to meet the residents as I’ll witness first-hand the work that Housing 21 does. I’m loving my time here so far and I can’t wait to see what the future holds after my apprenticeship!”
Find out more about the learning and development opportunities that Housing 21 offers.
