REGULAR


A harmful holdup


Unacceptable delays are hindering the Apprenticeship Standard process, says Jim Melvin, Chairman of the British Cleaning Council (BCC).


Our patience is wearing incredibly thin, given the painstakingly slow progress the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) is making in assessing and approving our application for an Apprenticeship Standard for the cleaning and hygiene industry.


Over recent months, the team


working on the application and everyone connected with it has been patient, but now


it needs to be clear that these delays and any future delays are wholly unacceptable.


The BCC first began the process to set up the application for an industry-wide Apprenticeship Levy funded training programme in 2021. A Trailblazer group of industry employers and sector experts, sponsored by the BCC, developed the proposed Apprenticeship Standard and I have nothing but the highest praise for Lauren Kyle, Karen Slade and all the team for their hard work and dedication in moving it forward.


The Trailblazer group rapidly pulled together the initial proposals, consulted on them with the sector and put forward an amended scheme to the approving body IfATE. However, since then things have progressed at a glacial pace, with the team constantly having to jump over more hurdles. It is absolutely correct if IfATE wish to ask more questions or require new tweaks to our proposals, but taking weeks to respond to us at every stage is not.


I initially hoped we might have approval soon after summer last year, then it was by the end of the year, then we were hoping to do a soft launch at the Cleaning Show in March, and now I hope the cleaning and hygiene apprenticeship will be approved by July.


The fault for this slow progress completely rests at the door of IfATE, and it remains unacceptable. The hold-ups add considerable pressure to the cleaning and hygiene industry as we struggle with severe staff shortages and fight to


24 | TOMORROW'S CLEANING


correct the inaccurate image of our work that’s held by some in some quarters who frankly should know better.


It remains a stain on those in power that an industry as large as the cleaning, hygiene and waste sector, worth £59bn and employing 147,000 people, does not have an Apprenticeship teaching the technical skills needed by cleaning and hygiene operatives working outside healthcare.


As a result, those firms within our sector who make compulsory Levy payments do not have an option to invest all of that money in their staff, so millions of pounds which could be invested in training our fantastic teams is lost to the sector every year. That is why we remain determined to ensure that IfATE cannot elongate the Apprenticeship Standard process any longer and, in doing so, continue to cost our sector a potential fortune.


The Cleaning Hygiene Operative Apprenticeship would also provide part of the career pathway for staff as well as helping to redress the completely and dreadfully inaccurate idea that industry workers are ‘low skilled’, both of which are crucial to attracting the new staff to the industry that we so badly need at the moment.


For these reasons, the industry has been crying out for this Apprenticeship for some years and this is the third attempt to win approval for one. It simply makes no sense at all that while the Government is promoting Apprenticeships in principle and as part of their stated policy, it remains so hard for us to actually set up an Apprenticeship in practice.


There may be internal issues such as staffing problems at IfATE, and the irony is not lost on me.


I’ll be urgently meeting with colleagues to review the process and, whilst it will now hopefully be completed in July, we will also review what escalation would be taken if required and appropriate. We will keep you updated.


www.britishcleaningcouncil.org twitter.com/TomoCleaning


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