First AI apprentice joins First Choice Homes Oldham in Greater Manchester first

The first ever AI apprentice in any of Greater Manchester’s social housing providers has just started work at First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO).

John Howarth has joined the IT team with the title of Digital and AI automation apprentice. 

The 32-year-old will use his first-class honours degree in Psychology to link into the human behaviour side of AI and understand how users interact with the Large Language Model - the system behind AI chatbots such as Microsoft Copilot. 

“Getting to learn about AI in a professional setting and using it to help people in areas such as automating processes really excites me," Mr Howarth said. 

“AI is going to be huge, and this is just the beginning, so I am looking forward to my journey in AI with FCHO.” 

Mr Howarth from Oldham is also a FCHO customer and found the apprenticeship opportunity through the housing association’s employment service called Directions. 

 “The tailored support offered by FCHO to find a role that would actually fit my skills was second to none,” he explained. “It wasn’t just ‘here’s a job that’s come up, go for it’; it was lots of time spent combing through specifications and finding out what would be the perfect fit for me.” 

The 18-month role is being funded through the government’s Apprenticeship Levy. Mr Howarth will undertake a mixture of blended learning using the provider IN4GROUP, who will award him his final grade. 

FCHO Director of Digital and Technology, Bharat Velji, added: “We’re really excited to be the first of the 24 social and affordable housing providers in the Greater Manchester Housing Providers network to appoint such an apprentice. 

“It reflects our ambitions as a business and our new corporate plan priorities to invest in digital services and data to transform customer and colleague experience making services more streamlined and accessible. 

“We are looking forward to seeing the impact John and AI makes for both colleagues and customers.”