Housing Support Student Placement Review

Day-to-day duties and responsibilities include: - Providing a range of support to teams across the Access to Homes department in relation to general day-to-day service delivery, service improvement and projects related to the service area - Undertaking statistical and analytical work related to the service area. - Visiting tenants in their homes and conducting office interviews as required at the Civic Centre. This role involves working from various sites across the business and from different teams to gain a full experience of the services provided by the Access to Homes department.

As part of St Leger Homes' induction programme, I had to undertake a selection of training modules (such as safeguarding and alcohol & drug awareness) which were essential for the role. This placement provided me with the opportunity to further develop inter-personal skills useful in any job role, on a daily basis through interactions with customers and the completion of projects/tasks. I also learnt how to handle and manipulate large data sets in order to produce reports.

During my placement year, I was involved in a range of individual and team projects which had a meaningful impact on customers and the team. Some projects I worked on included planning Doncaster's annual governmental rough sleeper count and carrying out statistical/analytical analysis of data to help with service improvement. Although I had regular check-in meetings with my manager to make sure everything was ok, I was often assigned projects/tasks to work on and left to self-manage my workload and time.

I had regular check-in meetings with my manager to make sure that everything was ok and they were always available to offer support if required. When I started in a new team within the Access to Homes department, I always shadowed somebody for the first few days so that I could get a good understanding of what was required. Everybody in the team were welcoming and supportive, giving me as much knowledge and hands on experience as they could.

As a social housing organisation, the company is heavily involved in the local community. The company is very inclusive and looks after all of it's staff well, providing plenty of opportunity to grow and develop. During Covid, the company offers an agile working programme which is beneficial to many, allowing you to split your time between working from home and in the office depending on work requirements at the time.

I thoroughly enjoyed my 12 month work placement at St Leger Homes. It has been a valuable and eye opening experience which has provided me with the opportunity to experience a different sector within the working world and further develop interpersonal skills ready for the graduate world. The placement far exceeded my expectations and would happily go back to work for the company after finishing my degree.

Yes

When applying for placements at St Leger Homes, ensure that you read through the job description / specification thoroughly before completing the online application. Use the application as an opportunity to sell yourself and your experiences as best as possible. It doesn't matter if you've had experience working in the specific field before, draw on experiences from other things you've done when answering the questions. Ensure that you research the company before the interview stage as this will show you are actually interested in the role and put you above other candidates that have just applied to any placement they can find.