Welcome to Cottsway’s careers page where you can find out more about working for us and search for current vacancies.
If you come to work for Cottsway Housing, you will join a friendly, supportive and enthusiastic team of people who are committed to providing quality homes in thriving communities. We support and develop our people because we know that it is through them that we deliver the high standards of service that our customers say we provide. Based in a purpose-built office in the beautiful Oxfordshire market town of Witney, we offer competitive salaries and a range of benefits.
We value people from a wide range of background and experience – whether you are an experienced housing professional or simply have an interest in working in our sector, please take a look at our vacancies, join our Facebook group or browse this website to find out more about us
Cottsway has signed up to the Disability Confident Committed scheme and as part of this we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for our vacancies.
Looking for a career in the medial field but want to potentially avoid the high cost that comes with attending a four-year university? Well, look no further than your local community college.
There are numerous job opportunities within the medical field that do not always require a bachelor’s degree. Among those jobs are radiation therapists, respiratory therapists, cardiovascular technologist and technicians and registered nurses, just to name a few.
For example, the nursing program at College of the Canyons is among one of the more popular programs offered by the school. Prospective nursing students can enroll in COC’s program for an estimated cost of $4,000. That is less when compared to a program found at a four-year university, like California State University of Northridge, which is estimated at $20,000.
According to the California Employment Development Department, the average income for a graduate with an associate’s degree in nursing is $76,731. That is nearly $18,000 less than graduates who earned a bachelor’s in nursing.
For Rebecca Janke, a COC alumni, an out-of-state university is where she planned on continuing her education. After being told by her mother that out-of-state would not be an option, Janke decided to look into community colleges.
Her search led her to COC. The school was affordable, close to home and more importantly it had a nursing program.
“I was dismissed from the nursing program at COC and it made me never want to become a nurse again. I just lost faith in myself,” said Janke.
Despite being dismissed from the nursing program, Janke would go on to complete her associate’s degree at COC in biological and physical sciences in 2006.
Rather than continue her education further, she spent the next couple of years teaching computer classes and taking on the role of after school coordinator at Mary Immaculate School, an elementary school in Pacoima.
While working at the elementary school Janke was making $10 an hour as the after school coordinator and $13.50 as the computer teacher.
“I just wanted to stay teaching at Mary Immaculate, although teaching has its flaws,” said Janke. “I even contemplated becoming a probation officer, but nursing was always on my mind.”
“I was afraid of having to go back to a world of mean teachers and deans. I prayed on it and decided to give it one more chance. If it wasn’t mean to be, then I would go back to school for a different career path,” said Janke.
The program at NVOC & Manual Arts cost $2,000. With the help of family and savings, all Janke had to pay to enroll was $900. She completed the program and went on to take the test for her license, which she passed.
Today, Janke is working at a county hospital and is provided benefits and a retirement plan. However, those benefits come at a cost. She takes home $1,248.67 twice a month.
“My gross pay is $1,973.25 but after you factor out taxes, health and dental insurances, life and accident insurances, union dues, retirement plan, and supplemental insurances that I pay into, it lessens my income by a lot,” said Janke.
As for the future, Janke is planning on enrolling in a program similar to NVOC that would allow her to bridge from an LVN to an RN. Once she becomes an RN, Janke plans on picking a specialty to stick with and continue her schooling to receive her bachelor’s in nursing.
Receiving a two-year degree can not only offer graduates a well-paying job, it can potentially open other doors for those students looking to transfer out and continue on to a four-year university.
At COC, he gained hands-on experience from the numerous classes he enrolled in as well as the sporting events he took part in. However, Encinas knew that if he wanted to continue pursuing a career in athletic training a two-year degree would not be enough to secure a job.
“The only way to achieve a degree in athletic training is by going through a four-year California Athletic Trainers’ Association (CATA) accredited program,” said Encinas.
He continued his education at COC and graduated in Spring 2014 with an AS in Social Science, AS in Athletic Training and AA in Liberal Arts and Sciences CSU Social and Behavioral Science.
With his associates’ degree in hand he transferred to California State University of Long Beach where he put his focus on graduating with his bachelor’s degree in athletic training.
At COC the cost of attendance for a full time student is $540 a semester. At CSULB Encinas is currently paying $4,000 a semester.
Encinas has been a student at CSULB for two years and this fall he will be entering into his third and final year at Long Beach.
In his time at CSULB he has been unable to find a job to save up for when he has to pay off those loans. It is not for lack of trying either.
The program that he is enrolled in requires students be in rotation and work at numerous sporting events to put in hours as a student trainer. All of this is done without any pay or compensation.
“It does bother me that we don’t get paid because during the season I can put between 40-60 hours a week and when the season is completed I can put between 20-40 hours a week,” said Encinas. “With all of our time spent on our rotation we are unable to work other jobs at reasonable hours.”
With only in-school training to rely on, Encinas must network in order to potentially secure a job after he graduates.
“Networking is key for this profession so being able to network while still in college and forming these relationships that can help with future jobs,” said Encinas.
Encinas has yet to secure a job following his graduation next spring, but networking has put him in touch with people that are hiring or know of other employers looking to hire someone with Encinas’ experience.
Those connections will prove to be greatly beneficial should it result in a well-paying job for Encinas.
The average income for an athletic trainer in California varies depending on the county you are working in. In Carlsbad, a graduate with a bachelor’s in athletic training can earn an average of $44,619 a year. In Berkeley a graduate with the same degree can earn an average of $47,605 a year. This is not including bonus and other factors that can potentially impact your annual income.
For now, Encinas is continuing on towards his bachelors and plans on pursuing his master’s and possibly a PhD in athletic training or sports management.
For any student wanting to further their education, weighing out all of their options can be important. According to Encinas, attending a two-year college first helped prepare him for the university level. There are even times where he says that some classes are easier at CSULB than they were at COC.
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One of the many fee-based programs I wrote and taught over the years is entitled, How to Understand Grief Seminars, better known as the HUGS program. Workshops varied in length from 1.5 to 4 hours depending on the client’s wishes. I developed the program in the early 1990’s because I saw a need as a funeral professional to offer help and vital information to adults, adolescents, and teens who were trying to cope with grief following the death of a loved one or friend. Back then, we had few resources to share with our families; they were left on their own to struggle with the many emotions and feelings that accompany grief.
Although the majority of our discussions will center on the death of a loved one, the information will be applicable to many different types of loss: divorce, job loss, loss of health, disabling injury, promotions, retirement, addition recovery, financial problems. The list is endless.
You will be able to take the information you glean here and apply it to your life experiences that have caused you grief, sorrow, anger, guilt.
Because time is not a factor here as it is in a training workshop, I will be able to expand all of my topics. I will share good resources that are beneficial in healing grief: books, websites and blogs of interest, videos, and perhaps a “guest lecturer”. May I suggest that you keep a journal to record your thoughts and the insight you gained from each lesson.
“Thank you for the course you offer helping the bereaved cope with loss! Yesterday I started thinking about an Armenian lady who truly showed wisdom and compassion at a time when my nephew’s death,possible suicide, seemed to much to bear.This lady was a kindergarten teacher who had grown up in Erevan, Armenia and had settled in Germany only recently. We were not close, only acquaintances, but she was a wonderful listener. When I called her to tell her my nephew had died in a car accident, that it may have been suicide, she was so understanding. She just started to tell me stories – about how she lost her grandmother, who had raised her, and had gotten drunk at the grandmother`s funeral (quite a scandal in Armenian society!), about how heartbroken her sister in Erevan was when their father died and how she gave his fine clothes to a beggar in the street; about a friend`s husband, who died unexpectedly , a freak accident, while picking apples in their orchard he fell off the ladder.Somehow hearing how all these tragedies happened to people in all kinds of circumstances, how they coped in all kinds of ways, that they wished they could have saved their loved one but could not have, and truly were not to be faulted; this was such a comfort”. Hope this helps someone. Cathy
It’s nice to look at many different perspectives .I am personally still grieving very badly, as I was very close to my daughter who was 21 and killed in car accident.
So anyways. I will finish your grief series. Keep searching and forcing myself , as if an extension out of myself that I’m not controlling.
I got sick over the past week, so of course I wanted to make passive aggressive faux positive comics!