General Maintenance Assistant
PGL
Paul M
0.00.00 I’m Paul. I work at PGL Caythorpe Court and I do maintenance and general dogsbody. When I first applied I wanted to be an Activity Instructor but that didn’t pan out the way I thought it would so I just stuck at it and I’m comfortable in maintenance. It was like a challenge to my mind which I like. I like to get challenged. I don’t like to get stuck in a job where it’s not motivating me but with maintenance I’m always getting motivated and it’s not, every day’s not exactly the same.
0.00.30 But I don’t think I’ve ever had like a proper down day where I just say oh I’m sick of this, I want to go home and everything, just be positive and it’s always great. I was a little tearaway at school. I never, like I turned up for all my lessons but I used to just mess around all the time in school and get myself and other people into trouble and then I hated it. I absolutely hated school so much. But now I’ve left I wish I could have gone back.
0.01.00 I left school when I was 15, just before my sixteenth birthday and I started working with one of my dad’s friends as like a labourer and then I went to college the next year and studied to do uniform services and I thought oh that’ll be a better qualification to have to get into the RAF. And then I left college and I found out the qualification was worth absolutely nothing. So that was a waste of time for that. And that was a year, so no, I’ve decided to come to PGL. It was, originally it was just going to be like a little getaway to see where I can go and like decide what I want to do
0.01.30 but I’ve found my feet quite quickly so I’m really comfortable in what I do and I just want to develop with my maintenance skills, see how far I can go. I think it was the people that I was working with at the time on maintenance, like they’re still here, there’s like Shifty and Paul. They’ve always been very supportive with what I can do, encourage me to do things and learn new things. But I’ve always been like a hands-on person. I’m not really good like academically I can’t put my hand to paper, but with fixing things, it’s just like yeah, that does that, that goes there.
0.02.00 I’ve always played with techno Lego when I was little so, and I’ve always enjoyed building things. When I first grew up I lived with my dad and my dad used to steel fabrication, so he was always like fixing things and then he did all of the building work in the house and then he met my step mum, Lisa, and then she works with psychiatric, like psychiatric nursing. Then my dad went into social care and then he always takes the mick.
0.02.30 Oh how can you look after the kids, look at the way you brought me up, even though it’s like he’s done a good job of bringing me up in the end. In five years time I’d like to be having a nice car and thinking about buying myself a house. Hopefully the building trade’s going to pick up soon so then I can get all the rest of my qualifications in the building trade and start my own business. I need to go to college and learn more about the skills that I’m doing, just to progress in them so I can get the bit on paper.
0.03.00 If it was the practice side I would like to think that I’d be able to do it no problem, but it’s just getting all the paper skills in with the, like actual building skills. But in the meantime I want to progress through PGL and see how far I can get within PGL and if I like it, I’ll stay. And so far I really enjoy it and I could quite happily stay another few years. Leisure activities, I like going for like walks, getting out in the countryside. I like skiing during the winter.
0.03.30 I try and get, go skiing every year but the last couple of years I haven’t been. And I do a lot of like biking, bmxing, mountain biking, occasionally I go running, so there’s always stuff, I’m always trying to keep myself busy, I don’t just like lounge around and just go oh, I just keep myself active and motivated.
0.03.50
Paul M is a Maintenance Assistant at Caythorpe Court, a PGL activity centre. He left school at 15 and took a course he hoped would help him get into the RAF, but it didn’t. When he came to PGL he intended it to be a temporary job, to give him time to decide what to do next. But he discovered he had a talent for maintenance, and he enjoys it, so he hopes to do some qualifications and make a good career out of maintenance or building.
More information about Property, housing and estate managers
The UK average salary is £29,813
There are 37.5 hours in the average working week
The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male
Future employment
- Determines staffing, financial, material and other short- and long-term requirements;
- Manages general upkeep, maintenance and security of the estate’s amenities;
- Makes sure that the amenities meet health and safety standards and legal requirements;
- Advises on energy efficiency;
- Discusses client’s requirements and may advise client on the purchase of property and land for investment and other purposes;
- Conducts or arranges for structural surveys of properties and undertakes any necessary valuations of property or agricultural land, and deals with grant and subsidy applications;
- Negotiates land or property purchases and sales or leases and tenancy agreements and arranges legal formalities with solicitors, building societies and other parties;
- Maintains or arranges for the maintenance of estate accounts and records and produces financial forecasts;
- Acts as arbiter in disputes between landlord and tenant and ensures that both fulfil their legal obligations;
- Examines and assesses housing applications, advises on rent levels, investigates complaints and liaises with tenants’ association and social workers to resolve any family problems.
