New website about FM qualifications changes

04 March 2010

Asset Skills urges FM and cleaning employers to visit a new website that aims to raise awareness of a large scale overhaul of sector-based qualifications.

Many employers have already had substantial input to the development of these qualifications. The new website is part of a joint project between Business Link and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, designed to ensure that businesses remain at the heart of the changes. Chief Executive of Asset Skills, Richard Beamish, said: “As the Sector Skills Council for FM and cleaning, it is our job to ensure industry is fully aware of the changes currently underway in vocational qualifications. The overhaul aims to make training easier for employers to understand and more user friendly to learners.”
Skills & Further Education Minister, Kevin Brennan, said: “Employers are now looking to put themselves in the best position to take up the opportunities of growth – skills will be crucial to taking on that challenge. That is why we are simplifying and modernising the system of vocational qualifications and I believe these changes will be invaluable to businesses and learners alike. For anyone who wants to get the skills they need into their business or take up training opportunities themselves, the new website gives them a great opportunity to find out more.”
Vocational qualifications in FM and cleaning are undergoing change as part of a wider reform of qualifications across all sectors. The new streamlined structures will continue to reflect best practice across both industries, as well as capturing new skills training in areas such as infection control cleaning, energy management, carbon reduction and sustainability.
The new set of bite-size qualifications will be easier to understand and access and have simpler titles with clear indicators of size, level of difficulty and content.The Government believes that these new qualifications will help to build a better skilled workforce - leading to improved retention rates and increased profitability across all industries.
The new website provides links for employers to find out more about the reforms process and gives them an opportunity to influence skills strategies for their sector.
It includes links to help employers map in-house training to nationally recognised qualifications, work with training providers to develop relevant units that can be taken as part of a nationally recognised qualification and to join forces with other employers in the sector to create high quality skills and training opportunities.
For more information go to www.businesslink.gov.uk/vocationalqualifications or for more information about Asset Skills visit www.assetskills.org
For updates on the government’s vocational qualification reform programme, see
www.bis.gov.uk/vocationalqualifications