Zoe Jackson takes great delight in proving opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to carve out a career in trades.
Our Regional Operations Manager did not kick-start her own journey in the housing sector until she was in her 30s after prioritising bringing up her two children, Joshua and Simone.
After laying the foundations in her children’s lives, Zoe launched her career working for one of LiveWest’s contractors before joining us in March 2013.
Boasting a passion for developing colleagues and providing excellent services for our customers, Zoe excelled at being a planner and became a manager in 2015.
With a thirst for learning, Zoe embarked on a range of training courses and was appointed as our Day-to-Day Repairs Manager in 2019.
Her rise continued and she is now a Regional Operations Manager where she looks after kitchen and bathroom replacements, the upgrade of empty homes and day-to-day repairs.
Taking pride in her own journey, Zoe is equally passionate about developing our apprenticeship programme which is designed to give people a springboard to their desired career route.
Zoe, who lives in Penzance, said: “I feel very fortunate as I love my job and have had great support from LiveWest along the way.
“My focus when I was younger was on my children and ensuring they had the best possible start in life, so my career only really began in my 30s.
“I kind of just fell into this line of work and have never looked back.
“Because I came into the profession at a later stage than a lot of others, I have got a real desire to help people do something similar.
“It is why I am so passionate about our apprenticeship offering as LiveWest gives people of all ages and backgrounds and from minority ethnic groups a chance to develop in their chosen profession.
“Apprenticeships are not all about typical school leavers and can be attractive to mature people who want to change their career.
“Being a late starter means I get huge satisfaction seeing someone having the courage to take a career turn and learn new skills.”
LiveWest appointed 26 apprentices, trainees and improvers last year and seven of those were women which represents 27% of the new arrivals.
It means we now have 16 women working across our 420-strong trades workforce.
That equates to four per cent of our total workforce and we are aspiring to increase that to five per cent in the near future.
Zoe has been pivotal in promoting our Women in Trades campaign which was launched to promote the range of trades available to women across the South West.
Zoe added: “I find it exciting that things are slowly changing, and more and more women are showing an interest in trades.
“When I first started as a Planning Manager, we used to have big meetings and there were about two women in the room.
“Now we are seeing a fairly equal split which shows that the dynamics are changing.
“I have been with LiveWest for 10 years and I have seen a massive shift.
“Trades are still dominated by males, and you can’t change everything overnight. But bit by bit more and more women are coming on board.
“The next steps are to start promoting trades to children of a young age in schools so that they have an awareness of the opportunities open to them.”
Find out more about working at LiveWest on our Careers page.