Eric Wright Facilities Management and Preston College are working together to implement an upskilling and recruitment strategy to enable our current employees to upskill and progress their careers.
We are running two courses with the education provider, one is a bridging course for Site Supervisors, Cleaning Supervisors and Helpdesk Team Leaders to ensure they are eligible to undertake IWFM Level 4, which will in turn allow individuals to progress to Assistant Facilities Manager, then Facilities Manager. The second course is a fire door inspection, maintenance and repair course that will enable self-delivery of this statutory compliance issue.
The fire door inspection course is a bespoke course created by the college which we are proud to have already delivered. The course consisted of:
- Identifying and appreciating the importance of critical components such as door closers and hinges
- Understanding the inspection procedure and pass/ fail criteria
- Understanding the advice to give the building owner/ client in case of inspection failure
- Identify issues that will affect the required performance of fire resisting door sets
- Understanding and awareness of the importance of third party certification
- Inspections, door hanging and maintenance
- CSCS Examination and regulated qualification in Health & Safety for Construction
Following on from the initial course, we have interviewed a number of qualifying candidates with two now appointed into full time positions. The next stage with the college is to complete the training required to evidence competency whilst gaining experience working alongside our external partners on live sites.
Over the next few years we will be conducting similar courses that will allow our employees to work in electrical engineering, air conditioning, water hygiene, BMS and fire systems.
This will provide more employment opportunities for individuals of Lancashire and also enable internal progression opportunities for our colleagues. We are very proud of the progression that we have made to date and thank Preston College for their support and collaborative approach.