TRAINING
systems in increasingly well connected buildings is gathering pace – making our industry a wonderful place to develop and implement new ideas. We have systems using artificial intelligence to diagnose all manner of conditions in buildings and automatically enable the building services to address them – from air quality to temperature control and ongoing service and maintenance managed by remote ‘virtual’ operators.
People of all ages, genders and backgrounds have an opportunity to contribute to their communities and wider society through working in our sector. We need to do a better job of promoting what our industry does and why it is important – and we need to back that up with a flexible approach to training and skills – one that reflects the full lifecycle of training.
This is very much the approach adopted by BESA Training where we promote
apprenticeships that can kick start your career; short courses to beef up particular skills as you progress through your career; and an experienced worker programme to support those who may have been working in the industry, but lack formal qualifications.
Real world Real world
At the apprenticeship level, we have beefed up the process by becoming an end point assessor so candidates now have to undergo a final test to ensure they have developed the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviours to equip them for the ‘real world’ of work. End point assessment involves a series of interviews, practical tasks and questions where students are examined – independent of their training provider.
This should give employers greater peace of mind that they are receiving apprentices with fully rounded competence ready for productive work. Previously, the system was based on continuous assessment, but employers often reported weaknesses in that approach as it lacked practical rigour.
We specifically support the ACR sector with a wide range of short courses to keep people on top of the latest developments in technology – with heat pump training; courses on new refrigerants that look at key issues like increased flammability; and F Gas requirements including managing leakage risk, recovering refrigerant, service and maintenance etc.
BESA has also introduced an Experienced
Worker Programme to provide recognition of competence for operatives who have been working within building services for five years or more but don't hold an industry recognised qualification.
Eligible workers can gain an Engineering Services SKILLcard by demonstrating they have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience using a work-based portfolio assessment process to achieve the specified unit/s, without having to take college-based examinations.
All of this underpins the new ‘culture’ of developing competence and then providing companies with the tools to demonstrate that competence to clients and government – and answer that basic question: Can this person actually do the job I am asking them to do? So, could the 2020s be the decade when we finally crack the problem and end up with companies that are competent and compliant and using skilled qualified workforces delivering buildings that work as they were intended? Clients would then see an integrated supply chain that is adding value to their expensive built assets while also bringing huge societal benefits that help to improve the environment and enhance the health and wellbeing of people.
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