IWFM ambassadors salute our profession in schools as we look ahead to World FM Day

News

World FM Day is back again this year on 15 May and this year’s theme is ‘Celebrating Global FM Standards’. World FM Day is not only about you and recognition of our profession, but the rising generation and how we can inspire and incentivise opportunities for them to thrive in our industry; and celebrations and events are already in full swing throughout the UK.Some of our members will salute the profession by inspiring the next generation to join it, delivering activity-based workshops in schools across the UK with the aim of encouraging them to learn about its diversity and impact and get involved.

The schools project is the pilot phase of an IWFM ‘career of choice’ campaign being developed with input from leading service providers to address the profession’s growing skills gap. In future, the campaign will target different audience groups, including graduates in relatable disciplines and others such as military personnel, aiming to attract the brightest and best people into our broad sector. The aim is to establish a resource hub via the IWFM website accessible to anyone interested in pursuing a career in workplace and facilities management.

Created in partnership with student engagement consultancy Class of Your Own, the schools workshop programme was unveiled last week to a group of member volunteers, including IWFM Manager of the Year Laura Birnbaum.

After the pilot workshop last week at Alder Grange High School, Rawtenstall in Lancashire, Mark Whittaker, IWFM North regional chair and Solutions Consultant for Thomson FM said:

“The day proved a great success. The kids were brilliant and spent part of the day noting the aspects of facilities management delivery within the school to highlight areas of improvement. I believe it is crucial that as a profession we initiate the conversations with children about a career in FM at secondary school age. It was brilliant to be able to share details of some exciting UK and global projects, to hopefully ignite a passion to pursue a career in the profession.”

The scheme forms part of the IWFM’s ten-point plan announced at the Institute’s launch last November where CEO Linda Hausmanis vowed to help make a career in the profession one of choice not of chance.

This is just one of a number of initiatives we're using to mark World FM Day.  

On the week of the 13 May we will release research and guidance on our website Insight and Research pages.