ISR - Students - Student stories

Student 7: Housing manager, South Australia

Why did you do the course?

• Saw it as a way to learn more about housing systems and policy issues
• Saw learning more about the above as the best opportunity to influence changes for the better
• Wanted to be involved again in a learning environment.

What were the benefits of doing the course?

• As above
• Wider knowledge not only of housing, but wider systems and issues (e.g. systems of government, ideologies, service provision etc –the non housing learning was totally unexpected, and in many ways the real pay-off)
• Exposure to lecturers like Terry Burke and David Hayward. They are great men –seriously wise, knowledgeable, principled and also extremely affable. I could have listened to them all day, especially when they got off-topic (as they so often did!). At the time, they were able to provide us students with more current and in-depth information about housing issues (e.g. housing reforms) than our organisations' senior managers were receiving. I probably miss dealing with them more than anything else about the course.

Did your specific housing skills and knowledge improve as a result?
Yes, studies were crucial in learning how to translate previously unstructured thoughts into issues, then into proposals, and then into projects/strategies to effect change –i.e. moving from thinking "someone should do something about that" to "I can do something about that, and here's how ".

Where do you think your working future lies?
In the policy area, though not necessarily in housing and not necessarily in the public service.

Other comments?
I know that a number of students over the years have chosen to do the course for more immediate reasons –e.g. they believe it will open up doors for them within their organisations. While this does occur, I think the thing that is probably even more important than this is that the course actually opens you up –to new ways of thinking, considering, planning and acting.

It's not an easy course and was always a struggle to find time to do, but I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about working in housing and doing it well.