The Guinness Partnership, one of England’s largest housing associations, has recently ran a week of free DIY and home maintenance training for women at City Skills, part of Salford City College Group, following the success of last year’s training programme.

The twelve residents participating in the award-winning training were either out of work or on a low income, and wished to learn basic DIY and maintenance skills, such as joinery, tiling, and plumbing.

Building on Guinness’s existing partnership with City Skills the college has donated the training space as part of their social value work.

Along with Guinness, training is delivered by Frameworks Social Enterprise CIC and supported by partner organisations: Salix Homes, Edmundson Electrical, Jewson Partnership Solutions, Build Salford, Smart Works Greater Manchester, Triton Showers, Terrix and HiSpec. All partners were involved in coordinating and planning the programme, helping fund the course and providing guest speakers.

placeholder image — Residents attend DIY Skills course

As well as training, participants received mentoring and support and guidance to help them get into work, and the chance to gain a Construction Skills Certification Scheme ( CSCS).

Pam a Guinness resident who participated in the programme, commented: “I registered for the programme to learn some basic DIY skills for around the home, and I learnt so much more than just that. I learnt there's so many different job types within the construction industry and so many growing opportunities, especially for women, which has made me consider taking my career in a completely different direction in the future. The help and support that is out there, not just from Guinness but other organisations too is incredible! And the course itself has given me the confidence to tackle projects in my own home. The team were all brilliant especially Gary, I didn't once feel like there was any question I couldn't ask and his delivery of the practical skills made it very easy to understand. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this course!”

Edd Draper, Training Manager at The Guinness Partnership said: “We are thrilled to be delivering our award-winning programme in Salford supporting local residents to gain new practical skills, build confidence and develop new friendships as part of our DIY skills programme. This is the third time we have delivered this training course in Salford, and we are grateful of all the support from our fantastic partners, who have helped make this another success.”

Also, funded by the training partners and donated by Jewson Partnership Solutions, Hispec and Makita, all attendees received a free toolbox and a power tool - an amazing end-of-course gift.