BPA ACTIVITIES MONTHLY ROUND-UP
A core objective of the BPA’s fi ve-year strategy is ‘to make parking a recognised profession’. But, Kelvin Reynolds asks, just what do we mean by that?
THE REAL
McCoy W
ell, the strategy says this: ‘We will be exploring options for establishing the BPA as an
Why should we ask consumers and the motoring public to believe that we are professionals and not just part of some great industry?
accrediting organisation for Frameworks of Excellence and to promote these across the parking profession, to stakeholders and to government’. This begs the question what is a ‘Framework of Excellence?’ This has more recently been defi ned as, and I quote: ‘An accreditation, stamp of approval, licence to practise or quality mark which aims to raise standards in the parking profession. Different frameworks will apply either voluntarily or compulsorily to each sub- sector within the profession.’ The purpose of this framework is to provide standards, which all members of the BPA – regardless of their core business activities – should aspire to. Presently it is being developed under the direction of the Professional Development and Standards Board. The Framework of Excellence will sit above core standards defi ned for specifi c membership types, across 12 strands, ranging from managing parking on private land to healthcare, to retail and leisure, to local authorities, to equipment manufacturing suppliers; broadly speaking, along the lines of the current special-interest groups. And why is all this important? Why should we ask consumers and the motoring public to believe that we are professionals and not just part of some great industry, or indeed a sector? Or a whole raft of other sometimes unsavoury descriptions used to describe parking services in the various forms, because the perception is ‘that we are only in it for the money? Indeed we have and still do often describe ourselves as ‘the
14 APRIL 2013
parking sector’ or ‘the parking industry’, but increasingly this is to misrepresent ourselves, and it does us no favours. In the words of Basil Fawlty, owner of the
fi ctional chaotic hotel Fawlty Towers: ‘Let me explain’… Hopefully it won’t be so much a poke in the eye (as was meted out to poor old – [he’s from Barcelona] Manuel… but more an eye-opener for everyone in this profession of ours.
The defi nition of the word ‘industry’ says it is: ‘economic activity concerned with the processing and manufacturing of raw materials and goods in factories’ I also looked up ‘sector’. The non- mathematical defi nition: ‘an area or portion that is distinct from others’. The OED says a ‘profession’ is ‘a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualifi cation’.
www.britishparking.co.uk
DENIS OPOLJA / SHUTTERSTOCK
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