The craft, on the job
Four days a week in real homes across Cardiff and the Vale, working alongside a mentor. This is where most of the learning happens. You cannot learn this craft from a screen.
Academy / The Programme
Eighteen months from
your first morning
Everything below is taught on the job, in real homes, by people who have done it for years. You are paid throughout. You pay nothing.
How it fits together
Three things running at once
The qualification
Protected study time each week, either with our training provider or at our Cardiff base. Industry cleaning certification plus a Welsh Government funded apprenticeship framework.
The support
A named mentor from week one, a monthly one-to-one with your supervisor, and help with the basics of working life — payslips, tax, budgeting, references, driving.
The curriculum
What you actually learn
Not a list of buzzwords. These are the specific things that separate a professional housekeeper from someone tidying up.
The hotel standard
The heart of the programme, and the standard everything else is measured against. Where the five-star feeling comes from — mostly sequence and detail.
- Bed making: corners, layering and presentation
- Bathrooms in the correct order, without cross-contamination
- The finishing pass — what the eye notices last
- Scenting, ventilation and leaving a room feeling right
- Quality auditing your own work before you leave
Fabric & fibre care
The skill that saves clients the most money, and the one they notice immediately when it is missing.
- Reading and interpreting care labels properly
- Wool, cashmere, silk, linen and viscose — what each can survive
- Stain treatment by type: protein, tannin, oil, dye
- Hand finishing, steam versus iron, and when to do neither
- Folding, hanging and storing so nothing creases or drops
Surfaces & materials
Knowing what kills what. One wrong product on a stone worktop is an expensive morning.
- Marble, granite, quartz and limestone — sealing and pH
- Oiled and lacquered timber, and why they need opposite things
- Brass, chrome, stainless and antique metals
- Glass and mirror to a streak-free finish, every time
- Leather, painted plaster and delicate wall finishes
Chemical competence
The safety backbone of the whole programme. This is formally assessed.
- COSHH, dilution rates and data sheets
- What must never be mixed, and why
- Our naturally derived range — safe for pets, children and planet
- Colour-coded systems and cross-contamination control
- Safe storage, transport and disposal
Morning management
Our signature service. A whole home reset after the family has had their breakfast, never before.
- Order of work, and why it is never random
- Working to time without dropping standards
- Reading a home and anticipating what is needed
- Managing a round across several properties
- Written handover notes the next person can actually use
Working in someone’s home
The part people underestimate. It is a professional skill and we treat it as one.
- Discretion and confidentiality — the Highgrove code
- Keys, alarms, access and security procedure
- Pets, children and other people’s routines
- Speaking to clients clearly and raising problems early
- Lone working procedure and personal safety
What you walk away with
Qualifications that are yours,
not ours
Everything you earn here is portable. If you leave us in three years for a hotel, an estate, a cruise line or your own business, it all travels with you.
We would rather train someone brilliantly and lose them eventually than train them poorly and keep them.
- Industry cleaning certification. Recognised across the UK cleaning and facilities sector, including your Licence to Practice and specialist skills units.
- A Welsh Government funded apprenticeship. Foundation level is broadly equivalent to five GCSEs; the next level up is broadly equivalent to two A levels. Funded in full — there is no cost to you.
- Essential Skills Wales. Literacy and numeracy support if you want it, whatever you came out of school with.
- Emergency first aid at work. A certificate that is useful for the rest of your life.
- A real reference. Written by someone who has watched you work for eighteen months, not a one-line HR template.
The money side, explained plainly
Who pays for all this?
Not you. Apprenticeships in Wales are funded by the Welsh Government through approved training providers, which covers the registration, delivery and certification of the qualifications in your framework.
We cover your uniform, your equipment, your certification costs and your travel between homes during the working day. You cover getting yourself to work in the morning, same as any job.
If you are 16 to 19 and not currently in education, employment or training, there may also be additional Welsh Government support available to you through Jobs Growth Wales+ and the Young Person’s Guarantee. We can point you to Working Wales, who will talk it through with you free of charge — call them on 0800 028 4844.
Funding rules and eligibility are set by the Welsh Government and change from time to time. We will always confirm what applies to you before you sign anything.
A typical week
Roughly how the week falls
Hours vary by round and season. If you are under 18 your hours are capped by law and we build your rota around that — never more than eight hours a day or forty a week.
Mon
Round day
Out with your mentor across three or four homes. Morning management where it is booked.
Tue
Round day
Same round, building familiarity. Consistency is the whole point — clients get the same face each week.
Wed
Study day
Protected time for your qualification, either with the training provider or at our Cardiff base. Paid time, not your own.
Thu
Round day
Deep clean rotations and specialist work — the jobs that only come round monthly.
Fri
Round day & review
Finish the round, then a short catch-up with your supervisor. What went well, what to work on.
Sat
Occasional
Event preparation and pre-event work comes up sometimes. Always agreed in advance, never assumed.
Nobody at the Academy works after 6pm. There is no evening or night work.
Ready when you are
Questions first, form second
Ring us and ask anything. We would far rather have a five-minute conversation than have you fill in a form you are unsure about.