Skills initiatives: opportunities for members to provide feedback 

News

We are taking part in a roundtable meeting with the Minister for Employment, Mims Davies MP, on Tuesday 15 September to discuss a variety of employment initiatives, such as the new Kickstart Scheme, and the impacts of COVID-19 on young people. We would welcome comments or enquiries from members on this these issues and on how the wider skills landscape is affecting the workplace and FM profession.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is seeking views on the UK’s approach to the recognition of professional qualifications and the regulation of professions after Brexit. Through this consultation BEIS is aiming to:

• ensure fair recognition of qualifications from other countries, complementing the needs of the UK workforce and maintaining high quality and consumer protection
• promote a regulatory environment that supports jobs, social mobility and access to professions for individuals from all backgrounds
• ensure the regulation of professions is forward looking and adaptive.

In the UK, regulated professions are those listed on the European Commission’s Regulated Professions Database. Workplace and facilities management is currently not recognised specifically as a unique profession and therefore it does not have a standard occupational classification (SOC). One of IWFM’s key aims is to achieve recognition for the professional practice of workplace and facilities management by lobbying the ONS and other organisations for it to be identified with its own SOC.

IWFM is fully committed to supporting professional development and qualifications and we will reflect this in our consultation response (the link to the consultation is here).

Apprenticeships

The Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education is also consulting on how it should make recommendations on the maximum government funding contribution for apprenticeships.

Through this consultation the Institute aims to develop a clearer, more flexible model which uses an independent evidence base to support greater value for money and the delivery of high-quality training and assessment. This is intended to enable more employers to access funding and increase engagement from training providers. Often the current funding bands are a barrier for training providers to deliver apprenticeships, impacting the number of apprenticeships available for uptake.

If you are an employer interested in, or with experience of, apprenticeships, we would like to hear your views to inform both our response to the consultation and to update our insight on the wider workings of the apprenticeship system in light of the forthcoming review.

If you would like to provide feedback on any of these items, please email: [email protected]