Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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IWFM ambassadors salute the profession in schools as Institute looks ahead to World FM Day
One month from today, workplace and facilities managers of the world will unite in celebration and recognition of their profession to mark World FM Day.
The Institute of Workplace & Facilities Management members will salute their profession by inspiring the next generation to join it, delivering activity-based workshops in schools across the UK with the aim of encouraging the next generation 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 FM 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 the 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 10-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 from IWFM to mark World FM Day.
On the week of the 13th May, IWFM will release research and guidance on its website Insight and Research pages.
A World FM Day marketing support pack is available to download from:
Established in 2018, the IWFM is the professional body for workplace and facilities practitioners. It exists to promote excellence among a worldwide community of over 17,000 and to demonstrate the value and contribution of workplace and facilities management more widely.
18th April 2019