TRAINING & EDUCATION
HOW DO I BECOME A… SPECIALIST HYGIENE TECHNICIAN
Tomorrow’s FM discovers what being a specialist hygiene technician is all about from Rentokil Specialist Hygiene employee, Richard Lewis.
1. WHAT DOES THE JOB INVOLVE ON A DAY-TO- DAY BASIS?
Rentokil Specialist Hygiene offers a diverse range of services most of which involve the professional and discreet disinfection of areas that have been exposed to biohazardous situations. These could include crime or trauma scenes, prison cells, void properties, emergency vehicles and healthcare establishments. The job is really all about keeping people safe by removing dangerous materials, substances and infection risks.
Every day is different with my job. One day I might be in a washroom environment, deep cleaning urinals but on another day I could be cleaning up after a dead body. Sometimes, I’m a hundred feet in the air being lowered down a silo to clean it.
2. WHAT QUALIFICATIONS DO YOU NEED TO START OUT IN THIS CAREER?
Rentokil provide all the training you need to progress with your career, but you will need to have a driving license to start with. The initial training is a 6–10 week course, dependent on the individual’s ability, which covers Health and Safety as well as field-based training courses in Catering, Washrooms and Specialist Disinfection. This is followed by a Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) accredited exam to achieve Level one status. Ongoing experience training is then continued
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for a minimum of six months, prior to additional sessions including external courses to achieve Level Two in our RSPH accredited courses.
3. WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THE JOB?
I enjoy variety and that is definitely present in this position. I never know how I’m going to spend my days, which makes my job exciting.
4. WHAT QUALITIES DO YOU NEED TO SUCCEED?
It’s really important to be a ‘people- person.’ Not only are you working as part of a team, but every day is customer-facing. We deal with some very sensitive situations, such as crime and trauma scenes, prison cells, void properties, emergency vehicles and healthcare establishments or even just very disturbingly dirty sites. You do have to be able to leave work behind when you head home each night. More than anything, you need to have a sense of humour when the job calls for it, as some days can be tough.
5. WHAT THE BEST AND THE WORST THING ABOUT THE JOB?
The best thing is the diversity. There are days where we do contract washroom and kitchen deep cleaning, but there are also many different call-outs and non-routine jobs. The worst is the risk of taking work home with you, as some of the situations we encounter can be quite upsetting. It’s
important to make sure that you don’t become too involved.
6. WHAT’S THE BEST AND WORST TASK YOU’VE EVER HAD TO PERFORM ON THE JOB?
One of my favourite parts of the job is silo cleaning which requires me to abseil down tall structures. Working at heights is exciting, as it’s really different and something not many people get to do. Silos are large structures that are used to store grain and food stuffs. It’s important that these structures are cleaned regularly as they can be a breeding ground for bacteria.
7. WHY DO YOU ENJOY THIS JOB?
There is a sense of satisfaction when returning a potentially hazardous site back to a safe environment and seeing a client pleased with the job. Not many people know who takes care of these technical cleaning jobs, so there’s sense of pride in the fact that we’re the ones behind the scenes looking after this.
www.rentokil-initial.com
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