Invest in young people, invest in the future of FM
The training and education of young people is an increasingly important factor within the facilities management industry. Andrew Hulbert, Managing Director of Pareto Facilities Management Ltd., gives his take on education and training in the FM sector and how the sector can help get more young people working within FM.
Facilities management is a new and growing industry and there has not been a traditional route for people to get into the sector, so why not strengthen your workforce while helping to get young people into work? Young employees are productive, affordable and create brilliant opportunities for your business. This will, in turn, maximise your organisation’s ability to be as effective as it can be in achieving its goals. The FM sector needs to start attracting more young talented individuals to join the industry as, once they are in, they can have the most amazing careers.
Young people are talented and determined individuals that can play a vital part in today’s workplace, predominantly in small to medium companies that are looking to increase their workforce. When these young people are given the right training and guidance, they could become the future managers of your business, as a skilled workforce is a motivated and productive workforce.
Due to the nature of operational roles, FM is an industry where talented individuals are given more responsibility and, as your responsibility grows, the importance of the employee grows and they can progress quickly within the company, taking on a more senior role. As the industry is really closely networked, there are also chances to jump between different roles in different companies, allowing employees to progress their careers.
Currently, FM is still a career that people fall into. A statistic from The Building Futures Group showed that only 7% of facilities management employees are aged between 16 and 24, whereas 26% of employees are aged 55 or over. This sole statistic is the reason why groups, such as The Building Futures Group’s Young Managers Forum, are so important for the FM industry – they can make a huge difference and are key to getting the message across to young people to join the industry. The forum has attended school careers days, given talks to careers advisory services within colleges and given presentations to university undergraduates.
The challenge is getting the message right and capturing young people’s interest and, perhaps more importantly, their parents’ interest too.
Companies, such as Asset Skills Training and The Building Futures Group, can provide exceptional training and key skill opportunities for talented young individuals and people working within FM get involved in some really exciting projects – so much more exciting than being sat behind a desk for 50 hours per week. We just need to tell people about it.
Apprenticeships are also available in the FM industry, providing work-based training packages that are effective, inexpensive and create brilliant opportunities for your business as well as the individual.
Apprentices can learn some of the most complicated skills through training in-house and it guarantees the employee is trained with all the knowledge relevant to your business from the start of their career.
Young Managers Forum
The Young Managers Forum was launched in 2004 and its main purpose is to help represent the FM managers of the future. The Young Managers Forum is focused on young people, generally under the age of 35 years old; however, its events and activities incorporate all levels and ages. One of the forum’s main purposes is coordinating and finding the winner of the PFM Awards Young Manager of the Year Award, which will be taking place at The Brewery, London, on 5 November 2014.
The forum ran its very first Young Manager of the Year 2014 networking event in June 2014 in the Keynote Theatre at the Facilities Show. This event gave entrants the chance to meet with previous winners and get some advice from this year’s awards judges, as well as network with other young, talented individuals in FM.
The main objectives of the Young Managers Forum are to identify, inspire and nurture young talent within the industry via networking events but, more importantly, to promote FM as a career of choice amongst young people. The forum aims to give them the confidence to share their ideas and meet other people in a similar position.
At the Young Managers Forum, we look to host informal events that take the formality out of networking and create a low-pressure environment. We have already had our quiz night, which was a big success, and we are currently working on plans for a summer street food mini festival, a mixed doubles English pool tournament and even some speed networking later in the year. We look at things differently and try to have fun.
Full article hosted on Asset Skills website - http://www.assetskillstraining.org/invest-in-young-people/