Young people take over Impact Housing Association on National Takeover Day

The children’s commissioner in England first thought of the idea which would be a great and thriving experience for young people all over the country. Takeover day is when young people get to experience what it is like to experience working with adults for a day and Takeover their job. This would include having to taking on the responsibility of having to do their job such as decision making. For the young people it is a chance to experience what it is like to work in a working environment but on a relaxed level. In west Cumbria we have 31 young people taking part in this thriving experience, not only great for them but the adults and organisations taking part as well. Impact Housing Association have taken on all thirty one young people and distributed them in their sites at Workington, Carlisle and Penrith. The young people taking part in this experience get to be involved in a number of different jobs ranging from the chief executive, finance director, director of community investment and the performance and value for money management all in Impact Housing Association.

Following the successful Takeover day in 2010 the children’s commissioner thought that it would be a brilliant idea to carry on this great experience for young people all over England, this year taking place on the 11th November 2011. Throughout the day the different members of staff taking part in Takeover day all got asked a set of questions, this was to find out their views on how they think this opportunity is good for Impact Housing Association, why they think it is good for the young person and how they feel they are benefiting from this opportunity, how they feel as an individual taking part in Takeover day and what they have planned for the young person to do whilst doing their job for the day. The young person doing the adults job also got interviewed and were asked some questions on their general view of how they felt about today and what they think they were benefiting from this opportunity.

The chief executive of Impact Housing association was very eager and interested in getting his view out, about what he thought of Takeover day in Impact Housing. He said that he thought it was a brilliant experience for Impact Housing as an organisation and the young people taking part as it was good to give something back to the young people who are in the community. He thought it was really good to provide this experience to the young people as a lot of the young people taking part in the Takeover day are housed by Impact Housing, and to get involved and closer to people in the community. It is also good to give something back to the young people who have families involved with Impact Housing and share the experiences and knowledge from the staff. He also thinks that it is a very good experience for the young people taking part to help them with their decisions and give them advice about their chosen career path.

The Finance director at Impact Housing gave his thoughts about Takeover day and said he thought it was a good opportunity to show to the young people on how the organisation works, understand what the structure of the organisation is, find out more about the finance of the company and what the expectations would be on young people going into employment. He said that whilst the young person was doing his job for the day they were going to develop a business plan for one aspect of the business and to investigate the income expenditure account and cash flow. He felt very enthusiastic about taking part in the day and thought it was a great experience for him and the young person. The young person doing the finance director’s job for Takeover day said that they were learning new skills about finance and they were going to be looking at psychology books about how people work together which is a brilliant opportunity for the young person as this link in with their psychology AS Levels. The young person also stated that they were getting more interested about the job as they were intrigued by working in an office type environment.

One young person is taking on the responsibility of taking on two jobs roles and will be sharing themselves out throughout the day between the chief executive and senior administrative assistant of Impact Housing Association. The young person stated that they felt it was good and exciting to take part in this opportunity and to meet different people in their working but relaxed environment. The senior admin assistant said that they thought it was a good opportunity to get different views from young people and to get them involved in what they do in the jobs, and get the young person to experience what it would be like to have a working day.

In addition the performance and value for money manager was also interviewed and the young person doing that job for the day. The adult stated that it was a really good experience for the staff to be involved because it keeps them on their toes as not only are the young people learning from the adults but the adults are also learning from the young people as well. She also stated that she believes it is a great opportunity for to support and raise aspirations for young people in the community. She said that she thought it was a good idea for to the young person to get a chance to see a little bit of what reality is in working life. The young person was going to be designing their next team newsletter and making the important decisions of what the newsletter looks like and how they were going design and present the newsletter. Jane Hall the performance and value for money management stated that the young person was getting the charm and wisdom from herself and her colleagues, and they would get a feel for what goes into and makes a good organisation. The young person taken on this job role for the day stated that she felt she had benefited from this experience as she knew she wanted to go into business for her chosen career path but this has encouraged her to do this more. She also stated that as a sixth form student it was great idea and opportunity to be involved as this is an important time for her to be carefully choosing what she wants to do for her career. 

For more information about the Takeover day you can contact Anne Cartner, Community Development Officer at Impact Housing Association.

This article has been written and uploaded by myself Anya Leonard as part of my role on Takeover Day.

This Photo was chosen and uploaded by Anya Leonard and Beth Reid.