Continuing with National Apprenticeship Week, we spoke to Ailsa Willis, our Sustainability and Investment Manager at Magna, who’s doing a Level 7 degree apprenticeship in Infrastructure Asset Management.
Ailsa is Magna’s expert in all things sustainability and asset – but she’s also very passionate about learning more and developing her skillset, which is why she’s doing an apprenticeship at Loughborough University alongside her full-time role.
Ailsa said:
“Apprenticeships aren’t just for school leavers – they’re for anyone who wants to grow their skills and develop their career. Lifelong learning is important – we need to face into challenges and make change as a sector. If we don’t, we’ll keep meeting the same issues."
Her apprenticeship is a two-year course, and she told us that the first two modules have explored core asset management principles and the way that decisions are made – including assessing the maturity of our homes, the approaches we use to manage them, as well as the values that influence our decisions.
She continued:
“It came about because I was chatting to a colleague in our asset management consultancy, who mentioned they were doing the Loughborough course. Something clicked for me – it sounded spot on for my role and for Magna.
“I get to the point where I feel comfortable in my role, and that’s when I want to push myself and start learning more. Experience is the most important thing, but I love having the academic backing too. It’s a chance to look at what we’re doing and challenge it – to really think about whether we’re doing the right things for our homes and our customers.
“Housing is emotive and in our jobs we’re dealing with real people and real lives. Having the customer at the heart of the decision making is important to me – it’s what we’re all about – but we must also think about whether we’re making the best decisions for our customers and business in the long-term.”
Ailsa’s job is busy, and so is her home life – the course demands about a day per week of her time, which isn’t easy to carve out, but she said she’s learned tips and tricks along the way to make studying easier, and the support she’s had from colleagues and managers makes all the difference.
She finished by saying:
“Paul Read, my line manager, is an absolute legend when it comes to support with this – I can’t speak highly enough of him. But to be honest, all my colleagues and everyone in the management team has been incredible. I know there are people on my course who don’t get that level of support and I feel really lucky.
“This is such a supportive place to do an apprenticeship. People here go above and beyond to help. Whether you want to train in a trade, develop your professional knowledge, or move into a new discipline – there really is something for everyone.”
We’re proud to have colleagues like Ailsa who are passionate about developing their skills to enable us to deliver better services and support to our customers.
You can learn more about apprenticeships at Magna by clicking here.
