TOMORROW’S CLEANING APRIL 10

And the award goes to… Cleaning!

The Institute of Meat and Meat Training Council held their annual prize-giving ceremony last month.

In all some fifteen awards were presented to individuals and companies that have shown particular excellence within the industry over the past year. Included amongst the awards were three for cleaning.

Integrated Cleaning Management (ICM) won the award for Best Company for Training and Qualifications and Moira Hughes, a longstanding employee of ICM, was also presented with an award for Cleaning NVQ of the Year.

ICM was awarded the 2009 Best Company for Training and Qualifications for this year in recognition of its commitment to training and development. Over 1,000 ICM people are enrolled on the NVQ scheme, with over 500 successfully certified to NVQ Level 2 in Cleaning. The most inspirational of these is Moira Hughes, one of the ICM Santander team in Warrington.

Moira has been working with ICM for many years and has been a cleaner most of her working life. Despite being in her 70s Moira is always keen to learn and was one of the first to register for the company NVQ scheme and has recently collected her NVQ Level 2 certificate.

Moira was not the only more mature winner at the event – Stanley Hill, also in his 70s, from Oakfield Foods also received an award for achieving a Level 2 NVQ in Cleaning and Support Services.

www.fdq.org.uk

Time spent on skills development rose by a third during recession

New research shows facilities management employers are among the most committed to staff training, with more than a third increasing the time devoted to skills development during the recession.

The Asset Skills Barometer Project is a rolling six monthly survey of employers. It asked 43 FM companies about current and emerging challenges.

While 34% of those questioned spent more time on training compared with 12 months ago, 11% spent more money. A significant proportion of businesses (43%) said the level of financial investment remained the same.

Other notable findings showed 35% of companies are planning to expand into new areas of activity, though 18% say their staff are

not equipped with the right skills and knowledge to undertake this.

Elsewhere, the Barometer Survey of 77 cleaning employers showed the time spent on staff training during the downturn rose by a quarter.

Health and safety legislation posed challenges to cleaning employers, as did the pressure to provide a “green service”, in line with environmental regulations.

To view the Barometer findings in full visit:

www.assetskills.org/Research/Projects/ Barometer_Questionnaire.asp

www.assetskills.org

Stonecare TV awarded for “Best Innovation”

At the recent Carpex Cleaning Exhibition and Awards, Nu-Life Stone Care beat off all rivals, to scoop “Best Innovation Award 2010” for the worlds first Internet TV Channel, which is solely dedicated to the caring and maintaining of natural stone floors and surfaces.

Mike Philbin who hosts the show, providing tips, tricks and case studies said: “We’re absolutely delighted with the award and the recognition it brings.

“We decided to produce the show after receiving numerous calls and emails asking for help. There’s no script and no retakes, just short four to eight minute episodes with help and information for anyone who watches, trade or DIY.

“At the moment we’re filming one episode a week and hope to increase this to two or three in the coming weeks”.

You can view the show at www.stonecare.tv

The future of our cleaning industry | TOMORROW’S CLEANING | 9

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