The FM Blog

Apprenticeship programmes are still a key area of activity. In scotland we are looking at developing an apprenticeship programme for Facilities Services at Level 2. This is because the scottish apprenticeship authority is only interested in frameworks at this level. This leads us to two questions, should we also look to develop a level 2 in Facilties Services for England? And, should we be looking to have the current Level 2 programme for cleaning and support services approved for Scotland.
Two other interesting updates linked to Scotland. Apprenticeships in Scotland do not need an technical certificate. Most importantly, we also received news from Skills Development Scotland that they are waving the age restrictions on apprenticeships. Really good news!

We have have also have an excellent offer to support apprenticeships in Cleaning and Support Services. Jarvis Training Management are offering us 50 places which they will fund and they will also employ the apprentice. We are focusing this offer on 5 cities with high youth unemployment - Leeds, Manchester, Birmiingham, Liverpool and Sunderland. However, the LSC have not prescribed this areas - so we can be flexible if we have requests from elsewhere.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the demand for a level 2 in Facilities Services and if you want to take up places via the Jarvis offer - let me know by email - kwaterlow@assetskills.org

At last we have confirmation of the final details of our meeting with BIS (Department of Businees Innovation and Skills), heads of public sector procurement and the FM sector. Friday 25th September was confirmed as the favoured date earlier this month - timing is 11.00-14.00 hrs (with lunch) and the venue will be One Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster SW1H 9BT. Many of you have confirmed your nominated attendees but I am still awaiting contacts from a number of companies. A formal invitation to the meeting will be issued next week and we need confirmed contacts by 26th August to issue the final invitations. Please remember that your representative doesn't necessarily have to be board level this time because we don't have ministerial presence at this meeting. The aim of the meeting will be to agree the joint statement which we circulated at out meeting in July and then discuss what implementation could mean and what form it should take. I think the meeting will be more productive if we have operational attendees. This could be someone like yourselves from the skills/learning & development side or someone from the public sector or procurement areas of the business. I don't think there is a preferred option - companies are taking a different approach and if we have a mix of backgrounds then I think it will make for a more productive meeting. If anyone is really keen for more than one attendee to take part, let me know and I'll see if we can accommodate the numbers. In the meantime, if you have an queries about the meeting please give me a call. Karen

Thank you to everyone who sent feedback to Edexcel on thier FM NVQ workbooks. We have now heard that Edexcel have formally posted the NVQ on the LAD. This means that we now have a total of 4 awarding bodies offering the NVQ (Edexcel, City & Guilds, FDQ, and WAMITAB). We will be amending the guide to the FM apprenticeship to show the Edexcel qualifications number. Some of you have been asking about the LAD number for the apprenticeship framework and we are expecting confirmation of that number anytime. As soon as we get it, I'll post an update.
In the meantime, I'm working my way through all members of the group to set individual meetings to talk through current priorities and issues. I have now heard that the meeting set for 25th September to discuss skills issues within public sector procurement will start at 11.00hrs. I'm still waiting for a confirmation of the London venue but will issue a note when all the details are confirmed. Karen