Our core work

Asset Skills works to improve productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in facilities management, housing, property, planning, cleaning and parking.

We do this by working with employers to ensure their staff have the skills they need to do their work well. We focus on three core activities:

• Qualifications - We make sure all careers across the footprint are backed by sound occupational standards. These are descriptions of what you need to know and do in a particular job. They form the basis of qualifications such as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) (SVQs in Scotland) or those run by professional bodies.
• Employer engagement - This is at the heart of our work. Although licensed by Government, we are employer led with no civil servants on our boards. Our teams work with employers to identify skills gaps and try and find solutions.
• Labour Market Information - Good research with a practical slant means we can understand better what is happening in terms of markets, working practices and technological change. This helps ensure we have a strategy designed to be of practical help as well as a source of information for employers.

UK wide remit

We are a UK wide organisation with representation and employer boards in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We recognise that to be fully effective, solutions need to be tailored to individual business needs and will vary by country and region.

Northern Ireland Boards

We have a main Asset Skills Board in Northern Ireland which steers actions with employers.

This is also split into two sub-groups - Housing/Property and FM/Cleaning - bringing together industry specialists to focus on specific topics.

Our plans include developing senior level skills programmes, focusing on the areas of greatest need, like housing.

We will seek to promote new standards of quality and efficiency using a bespoke training programme, developed with Belfast Metropolitan College. And we will continue developing partnerships to address skills deficiencies in the cleaning and facilities management sectors and build relationships with existing and new employers.

Our future development must be grounded in an awareness of the needs of employers and the often sensitive nature of those needs. We will continue to address the skills requirements of other sectors at all levels - from cleaners to chief executives.