Apprentice success stories – Jessika Ann

In this blog post, we’re shining the spotlight on one of our brilliant apprentices, Jessika Ann, who has blown us all away with her ingenuity and willingness to expand her skill set. Since beginning her Safety Health and Environment Technician Level 3 course, she’s accomplished so much, including receiving a prestigious award. Read on to find out more about her journey so far.

Q) What is your name and current role?

My name’s Jess and I’m a Health and Safety Advisor at Stockport Homes.

Q) What led you to start your chosen apprenticeship?

I never intended to be a Health and Safety Advisor; I was made redundant during COVID and fell into the “admin” role of the Health and Safety Team. My manager saw something in me and offered me the progression pathway from an admin role to H&S Advisor which included this apprenticeship. I am so glad I accepted!

Q) What does a typical day look like for you?

No two days are the same; I could be out on our estates in a bin room looking at manual handling to being office-based and helping people use the H&S management system.

Q) Do you have an example of when you have applied your required knowledge?

I am no longer the “admin” with limited knowledge of Health and Safety, and I am now the official “Health and Safety Advisor” full of knowledge. It has provided me with a toolbox of information which assists me daily in my job, enabling me to provide health and safety advice to my colleagues when they ask questions.

Q) Do you have an example of when you have applied your required skills?

I’m able to apply my skills by going out into different departments and supporting others. I am always learning from my experiences but I feel more confident now. I would run everything by my team at first, but now I can make the decisions for myself and apply my skill set.

Q) Do you have an example of when you have applied your required behaviours?

My manager tells me to look at what I’ve created as I have evolved. I was quite quiet and not so outspoken and avoided challenging things, but now my confidence has grown so much to help, advise and point out things in the workplace. I can show my passion better now I have that understanding!

Q) How would you describe the apprenticeship journey to anyone thinking of starting?

The knowledge of the tutors is fantastic. Their ability to mould around my industry and help me to understand it from the housing side of things really helped my learning.

Also, my trainer changed and he saw me through my EPA. I was stressed and frustrated and felt like I would fail but his calm attitude and advice really helped me and pointed me in the right direction.

Q) What advice would you give to someone starting an apprenticeship?

When looking at qualifications, especially as an adult, it can be hard to balance everything and self-study. You can learn and be ‘book smart’ but without the experience, you don’t have the full package. I feel privileged to have gained rich knowledge from working in the housing sector and out on-site.

Q) How did your manager and trainer support you whilst on the programme?

I was lucky that both my organisation and manager supported me throughout my apprenticeship journey.

I was able to do things like job shadowing within the organisation and have one-to-one mentoring and support from my manager and the rest of the team I work for, so my manager and team were my mentors and the exposure I got was all relevant to the apprenticeship.

Q) Can you tell us a bit about your final project for end point assessment?

It was a ‘near miss’ project on accident management. We analyse statistics each year for accidents and incidents. Looking at this, and through learning, I realised that more near misses should be recorded and they are vital to stop accidents from happening. I wanted to work on having more near misses than accidents recorded during the year.

So many departments such as waste, landscape, construction and maintenance were surely missing capturing evidence of things. I needed to figure out how things are reported and it wasn’t a simple process.

Some employees don’t have immediate access to computers all of the time and we needed to cut the downtime required for reporting and change the process.

A QR code you can scan came to me while shopping in Tesco. The H&S management system needed to be contacted and marketing also needed to be involved to help brand and promote ‘Never Dismiss a Near Miss’…Catchy eh?

Now we have the QR codes on our lanyards, QR stickers in brew rooms, vans and even the back of toilet doors! People can now easily report via scanning the QR code with their mobile phone and completing an online form which then comes back to our team to review. In the three months since launch, near misses have tripled.

Q) What was the highlight of your apprenticeship?

I was nominated for an award at the Safety & Health Excellence Awards. It is a national awards night with multiple categories. It felt great for Stockport Homes to be part of this alongside huge organisations such as Biffa and Arco. It was an amazing experience, I had been to the event before but not where I had been individually shortlisted.

I was up with two other team members for different categories. I was overwhelmed and didn’t actually realise my name had been called when I won. It was an honour to be presented by the comedian Dara O’Briain and receive the award in front of everyone.

The pressure was on for taking part in a media interview straight after I collected my award and I had a massive cheesy grin on my face for the rest of the night.

I am very grateful to my team, manager and final trainer for seeing something in me and supporting me. As much as it was my idea, a lot of people were involved in making it come to fruition. Seeing the surrounding team from the wider business participating in the new process has filled me with confidence.

Q) Do you feel the apprenticeship has helped your future aspirations and do you have any plans for your career or further development?

I have never had a solid career which required a qualification before; it’s always been by luck, or because I have transferable skills. This apprenticeship has helped me with employability because, now that I have this qualification, I successfully applied to IOSH and gained “Tech IOSH” status.

No matter what happens I can always apply for Health and Safety Advisor roles. My next step is to complete an L6 qualification and gain CMIOSH status.

Q) Name one positive experience you have taken away from your apprenticeship

The whole apprenticeship has aided me! When I started I had no understanding or real knowledge, but now I have in-depth knowledge and confidence.

Neil Smith, Head of Health and Safety at Stockport Homes, had this to say regarding Jessika’s apprenticeship journey:

“The safety of all our colleagues here at Stockport Homes Groups is of paramount importance. Our core values enabled us to become an organisation of excellence and support all our employees to grow and thrive, we are ‘One Team Transforming Lives’.

“Jess joined my team in an administration role, but it soon became clear through her passion, determination, and excellent work ethic that she had real potential and wow she has certainly proved me right!

“At Stockport Homes Group we have in place an employee progression pathway, so I was able to offer Jess a place on this and together we agreed on a structured programme of job shadowing, mentoring and one-to-one coaching. Part of this progression was to complete a level 3 apprenticeship in H&S with Penshaw View.

“So, after 18 months of hard work and the support and guidance of her peers and Penshaw View she not only passed her level 3 apprenticeship she also gained a distinction! Which in part was due to her project of increasing near-miss reporting which she went on to win a national award for at the SHE awards this year.

“Jess is a real asset to my team, and I am super proud of her every single day!”

Apprentice success story

Jessika’s remarkable apprenticeship journey has demonstrated just how much can be achieved when a keen learner meets a capable team of trainers. Her drive to grow into her role and even expand beyond it is a testament to the inspirational power of apprenticeships.

We’d like to congratulate Jessika on all she has accomplished and thank our trainers for guiding her through this important process. Without them, these kinds of success stories wouldn’t be possible.

If you’re interested in taking on a life-changing apprenticeship or training programme yourself, get in touch with our expert team today to find out more.