Scottish Housing Day 2023 is all about celebrating housing as a career.
Employability involves working with our customers to, as Jane mentions, “help people discover their resources, strengths and skills to make changes around learning and work”. Placemaking is a varied role, and involves collaborative efforts within Harbour and external stakeholders to find ways to improve the social, economic and environmental condition of the areas we work in. We have been expanding our contributions beyond providing quality housing, to having a more holistic impact upon the communities we serve.
Hear from Jane Whiting, one of our Placemaking & Employability Officers, on how she finds working in this industry:
What attracted you to your job?
Before I worked for an Employee Assistance Programme helping people with work problems using coaching and counselling techniques to reduce barriers. Work as a source of personal confidence, finding meaning and life purpose is an under rated aspect of life. This drew me to the area. Working in an employability role is about helping people discover their resources, strengths and skills to make changes around learning and work. This work draws on my ability to assess people, listen to their stories, identify any unhelpful beliefs and help people visualise a new future they can move towards.
It’s a very practical role and it can lead to lasting change, that’s very satisfying.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
What I enjoy most is when people are able to make a change that ensures their life is more sustainable and satisfying, especially when they have been frightened of change. In particular, earning more money and feeling more valued in a new role. I’ve noticed that women who are young mothers are more ambitious to retain a career and not ‘mummy track’ when their children are small. This often involves working part time but at a same high professional level. Being able to be a mother and how challenging that is actually proves that they can do a tough job too.
The other part of my job role is in Placemaking. At the moment most of this is focused around garden projects bringing tenants together to grow things and grow relationships and confidence as a by-product of this. I really enjoy bringing people together and helping people grow a bit of their own food, plant more trees and help to nurture our communities.
What job did you want to do when you were a child?
As a young person I wanted to work in publishing as a writer or editor, preferably Elle! My first career was in Communications and I have found interview skills I learned while writing really helpful in getting to people’s stories.