Judges’ comments

Katie had a dream and acted on it. She seems more than an operative e.g. her relationship with Hyde. She has taken on additional duties, supervising and mentoring others, including programme management. She has demonstrated creativity in customer care and attention to detail. She is a great role model, team player, supportive of others, empathetic, customer focused, popular, commands respect and a leader in the making (if not already). She will not shy away from extra responsibility (when needed). It is good to see Katie will be used to promote (better for apprentices to promote than established management). She is a figurehead who could inspire others, one that any organisation would be proud to have. Katie could reach the top.

Rachel – it is good to see women coming into the sector. More are needed. A good example of admin moving into HNC and being keen to develop and move out of her comfort zone, not letting her occasional lack of confidence stop what she wants to be. Authenticity is key.

Rachel seems to be a self-starter (supported the fire door programme and volunteering) and is constantly challenging herself. Great to see the work she is doing with local schools which can only develop her further. She is a role model for others, passionate, enthusiastic and a team player, supportive of others. Building Safety work needs more people like her in the future with a passion for the subject, keeping residents safe and new ways of working. She has obviously made an impression at Magna.

Emma – impressive with her knowledge, commitment, drive, and enthusiasm. She is self-motivated, very competent, articulate and becoming highly skilled. She is clearly driven and knows what she wants / where she is going and should be very successful, reaching her career goals. She will be a great ambassador and example for women in the sector of what you can achieve if you put your mind (and heart) into it.

What makes these people a rising star?

Katie, after 10 years in the beauty industry, the 2020 lockdown gave her the opportunity to reflect on her career. She had always been interested in painting and decorating and decided to move into the construction sector, joining Ian Williams in September 2020 as a painting and decorating apprentice. Since then, Katie’s confidence has grown, along with her knowledge and skill as a painter and decorator, to become a valuable, integral part of the delivery team. Even though decorating companies are predominantly male, this has never challenged Katie and her diversity has brought a positive and very constructive impact. Her decision to move into a career in the construction sector demonstrated her tenacity and hardworking nature. She has successfully developed working relationships with a largely male-dominated site team and has embraced the cultural shift from working in a typically female-led environment. Katie has also developed good client relationships, for example with the surveying team at The Hyde Group and grown in confidence when speaking directly to clients. Hyde’s project surveyor Dyron Chambers said: “I’ve watched Katie’s confidence grow so much in her time working on our redecoration programme. She has a fantastic attitude and positive approach to everything she does. Katie’s a great asset to the Ian Williams team.” Katie’s success was recognised this year when she was joint junior runner up at the Painting and Decorating Association (PDA) awards for the Apprentice of the Year Award, demonstrating she is already being recognised by industry bodies as a Rising Star. Following her success at the PDA awards she has been invited to take part in a day’s workshop and filming.

Rachel's enthusiasm and passion for her work shines through in everything she does at Magna. Before then, she worked in administration for asbestos and roofing contractors for many years but did not ever see herself progressing. However, her positive can-do attitude, her aptitude for learning and her development made her stand out so she has been enrolled on an HNC course and promoted to a trainee surveyor role. She always tries to find to new, better ways of working by improving processes, sharing useful information within the team and wider business. She stands out head and shoulders, is always the first to volunteer for new tasks, and despite occasional lack of confidence is not afraid to try new things and push herself out of her comfort zone to enable her to learn and grow.

Emma has worked for NIHE for over 6 years, starting as a Graduate Trainee (background in joinery). Emma always rises to any challenge bringing her experience as a degree qualified Building Surveyor and a qualified joiner – a multi-skilled professional and trade background has been an asset in answering technical queries from hands-on experience and mentoring younger colleagues. As a female joiner, having overcome various challenges in a male dominated sector, exceeding expectations to be a great role model with an understanding of issues faced by female tradespeople, including changing the mindset of colleagues to move to a more diverse workforce. She has recently been appointed as the NIHE’s Artes Manager to take forward the management of the social clauses in its £200 million plus annual budget and to bring in more apprentices from trades and professional roles (Quantity Surveyors and Project Managers). In her spare time Emma makes handmade furniture and is a Mum to 4 year old twins.

What impact have they had on the organisation or sector?

Wayne Cockley, Ian Williams Foreperson commented that “Katie's impact has been very positive; she can be relied on to carry out her work independently and as part of a team. Her skills as a decorator continue to grow and I have every confidence in her. She is always willing to go above and beyond for her colleagues and Ian Williams. Katie’s delivery is always 100% and she is a great ambassador for Ian Williams.” She is known for going above and beyond her daily role. Recently the Foreperson running the contract for Hyde Housing was on leave and Katie was given additional responsibility as a Chargehand to support the Contract Manager, Steven Scott. She quickly got up to speed with administrative elements, including timesheets, site inspection reports and assisting with wages. Katie successfully supported the day-to-day running of the work with 5-6 operatives, overcoming challenges and ensuring programme timescales were met. The site team responded well to Katie’s interim appointment as their respect for her was well-established. It also raised her profile with the client. Following this experience, she has continued to undertake additional duties, such as completing report sheets, to ensure continued learning to support her future development. Katie has a can-do attitude and is known for thinking ahead and proactively managing site logistics. The team is working across multiple sites in southeast London for Hyde Housing and she is overseeing the logistics of getting tools, equipment, and materials to the right locations, as well as transporting team members to different sites. One of the main challenges the sector faces today is the skills shortage and Katie has demonstrated it can look outside of the sector to find talent with transferable skills – time management, good customer care and attention to detail.

Since starting with Magna, Rachel has made a huge contribution, she is always looking to improve ways of working. She has been instrumental in devising its fire door survey programme, and found ways to cross reference different data sets to ensure best use of resources. She has been promoting the sector by volunteering to carry out mock interviews with local students, and promoting the social housing sector in schools. Rachel contributes well to projects and always tries to involve everyone across the organisation.

Emma, through her experience in various roles – joinery works, making furniture, working as a joiner to a contractor while doing her building surveyor degree, before joining NIHE’s Asset management graduate programme. She has shown both female and male colleagues that it is possible to achieve this level of diversity of roles and is a role model to many different young people inside and outside the organisation. When the industry is facing a major skills shortage, Emma has shown how females can have diverse roles, be a mother, as well as start as a tradesperson and move into a professional role – a career path open to anyone.

She attends regular careers days at schools and colleges to inspire young people with all the varied paths that are possible with no limits for females. In her role as Artes manager, she has interviewed and inducted the first year of NIHE professional apprentices. She found all of them a bespoke college course by researching and working with them to establish the right level of entry appropriate to their individual needs and current qualifications, using her own experience of college and university having started in a trade

Why do they deserve to win this award?

Prior to starting the apprenticeship Katie’s enthusiasm for all things artistic and practical was demonstrated through undertaking decorating projects in her own time. For example, decorating her own living room and her grandparents’ bedroom as well as undertaking work for her sister. In the short time since being at Ian Williams, she has had a significant impact on the local team. In addition to developing her own skills and knowledge, she is keen to help others, providing guidance and mentoring to another female apprentice in the team to enable her to fully achieve their goals. Katie’s own achievements are paving the way for other female apprentices at Ian Williams, who are so proud of her. Katie has worked on an eclectic range of contracts across multiple sectors – social housing, private education, and residential care environments – always delivering a high-level of service to clients and customers. She has dealt with challenging situations on site with diplomacy, empathy, and great customer care skills to enable her to liaise sensitively with residents and building users. She identifies their concerns and implements a solution to mitigate them, as well as consistently following up on her commitments to customers to ensure that their expectations are met or exceeded, resulting in high levels of customer satisfaction. Katie’s worthiness of the award has also been recognised by her college tutor, Andrew Shovelar, “Katie has made a great positive impact on the class by setting a high standard as well as advising other students. Katie is popular in class and helps others. She also has leadership qualities which will really help her to progress in the industry.”

Rachel has shown incredible commitment since starting with Magna’s Building Safety Team to understand the needs of its customers and the steps it is taking to keeping them safe. She has a willing aptitude to learning and applying her newfound knowledge into practice for the benefit of others. While Rachel does not have a background in construction or Building Safety, it has been very exciting to see the tangible difference she is making so quickly. The level of commitment she has shown to Building Safety is exemplary. It should also be noted that she is doing this while working in a traditionally male environment, presenting its own challenges. She is, however, demonstrating a very positive role model for women within the construction industry and has been identified within Magna as an example for women considering these types of roles. She does it with passion, enthusiasm and with bountiful positivity. Rachel is real team player and one of Magna’s team members who is the glue that holds them together. The team have the highest regard for her and her work. They would be delighted to see her win this award for the incredible work she does.

Emma completes every task with such passion, thinking of the impact on the staff member, the organisation as a whole and tenants.  She plans, thinking about various scenarios and stakeholders. She understands the true meaning of working together and taking account of others’ needs. As well as overcoming many challenges to be able to achieve what she has to date, her knowledge of contract matters in her previous role project managing a Major adaptations programme for 3 years made a huge impact on the projects she delivered, such as adaptations for tenants with life limiting illness.  Her work was exemplary – administering the contract, applying the principles of NEC, ensuring excellent Health and Safety practice, and working as a team.  Emma applies a wide range of skills to the benefit of both NIHE and the end user, tenants. She regularly attends local Housing Community Networks to collect feedback to be built in to new tenders, which has had a huge impact in terms of the required social value needs in her current role for contracts to deliver value in the community. She has been involved with various projects – furniture upcycling and other initiatives to upskill tenants with community training days.

What do you see them contributing in the future?

Katie has already had a huge impact on the local team who know this will continue. She is proactive and forward-thinking, keen to implement solutions to manage any challenges that arise. She is constantly looking at ways to improve systems and processes to increase productivity and efficiencies. She always strives to develop her skills and experience and takes on additional responsibilities wherever she can such as completing report sheets. With the challenges of the skills shortage and staff retention within the industry, Ian Williams is looking to recruit talent from outside of the sector. We are keen for Katie to be a figurehead for this, successfully demonstrating that transferable skills can be used to move into the industry. She is also a positive role model for other female colleagues and they are keen for her to be an advocate for future female apprentices and operatives. Ian Williams sees Katie progressing to a Foreperson and ultimately a Contract Manager. Since starting she has continued to demonstrate her potential and the qualities attributed to being a ‘Rising Star’.

Rachel has the Building Safety world at her feet. With the passion and enthusiasm she has shown so far, she has a great foundation for the future and has the possibility of growing in her career and becoming an excellent Safety Surveyor and more. Her career trajectory is on the rise and quickly. She could progress into a more upfront role where she can speak to colleagues, customers, and other work associates about the importance of Building Safety. There is a need to hear strong, clear leadership on such matters. Building Safety is here to stay. Having colleagues who are new to Building Safety to take the baton and run with this message, is so exciting. Rachel can progress a long way, having found her home in Building Safety. Her aptitude to help keep others safe is the most important thing that stands out.

Emma has fantastic leadership skills such that others will listen and follow because of her varied background as well as her care and empathy for colleagues, tenants, and the world.

She has the potential to move into senior management, while continuing to develop her mentoring skills to reach wider audiences, to help other future leaders, and to share her knowledge with the latest recruits. Colleagues like Emma will assist in safeguarding the delivery of maintenance works by encouraging long term recruitment and staff retention.

She will continue to use what she has learnt from social value works and other recent work in future contracts to ensure tenants get best value from NIHE’s contracts and identify other initiatives. She will also soon be working more closely with the DLO to expand their current apprenticeship provision, widening recruitment exercises, and showing future apprentices the possibility of not just having a trade skill but of expanding to a wider professional career in an office in the future. Emma has great potential in her professional and personal life because she undertakes tasks with such diligence always thinking strategically to the future.