FM leaders to tackle technical skills crisis at Arcus industry roundtable
Senior facilities management leaders will come together to agree actions to address the sector’s longstanding technical skills gap.
Arcus FM is calling for greater industry accountability in addressing the technical skills gap, hosting an industry roundtable on 11 November to bring senior FM leaders together to agree actions on a challenge that has persisted for more than two decades.
Taking place at Arcus FM’s National Training Centre in Stevenage, the roundtable will bring together FM providers, customers, suppliers and industry bodies to examine where progress has stalled and what organisations can commit to doing differently.
Building on the findings of Arcus FM’s whitepaper, ‘Why Isn’t It Fixed Yet?’, the event will move beyond identifying the barriers facing the sector and focus on the commitments needed to address them.
The roundtable will feature four working sessions examining different aspects of the challenge, from the influence of government policy and funding on technical skills development to the training pathways needed to build a competent workforce.
Discussions will also explore how the industry can attract more people into FM and improve access to technical careers, alongside the role of procurement models and customer support in enabling greater investment in skills.
Across the sessions, participants will consider the barriers to progress and agree on commitments that organisations can take forward individually or collectively.
The day will conclude with attendees sharing their agreed actions and signing a collective pledge to support progress on the skills gap.
The key outcomes and commitments from the roundtable will be shared following the event.
Theresa Bell
Chief Executive Officer
Theresa Bell, Chief Executive Officer at Arcus Facilities Management, said:
“We’ve been talking about the skills gap in facilities management for more than 20 years, and while there has been progress in some areas, we still haven’t done enough to address the scale of the challenge.
“We know what the problems are. What we need now is a greater willingness to take responsibility and commit to doing something about them.
“At Arcus, we’re taking the first step by bringing people from across the industry together and asking them to agree what they can do to make a difference. We don’t expect to solve the skills gap in one day, but we do expect to leave with actions that people are prepared to take forward.
“If we’re serious about protecting the future of our industry, we need to move beyond discussion and start holding ourselves accountable for progress.”
Download the
whitepaper
The FM sector has discussed the technical skills gap for years. Yet workforce pressure continues to grow as estates become more complex, experienced engineers leave the profession and investment struggles to keep pace.
This is no longer a future challenge.
