Last year we updated you on the apprenticeship standard for the cleaning and hygiene industry being considered by an approving body, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IATE)
The final proposals for a levy-funded apprenticeship have been submitted and the decision on the final agreement and confirmation for the apprenticeship standard will be made by April. Glen Group & RCB have signed up and are included.
The BCC said the process is “proving to be much lengthier than hoped, but these proposals have progressed much further than any of the previous attempts to set up a much-needed industry-wide apprenticeship”.
There is currently no apprenticeship scheme for the sector that provides training in the technical skills needed by cleaning and hygiene operatives working outside healthcare.
This leaves us with no suitable option for investing Apprenticeship Levy funds in training staff. We pay 0.5% of our payroll towards the Apprenticeship Levy with no suitable training programme in which to invest the money.
This programme will be hugely beneficial for the industry, making available highly significant and substantial funds from inside our industry for staff training and helping to redress the completely inaccurate idea that cleaning staff are ‘low-skilled’.
The British Cleaning Council is issuing a call for us to “speak up” for their industry and help lobby MPs and sign a petition to make cleaning and hygiene a national priority.
The British Cleaning Council and 22 associations from across the industry have said they "are frustrated by the lack of interest" from MPs and political parties in the report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Cleaning and Hygiene Industry, entitled Embedding Effective Hygiene for a Resilient UK.
The report’s recommendations, if implemented, would put cleaning and hygiene at the heart of the national agenda, making the nation much more resilient to current common infections and also much better prepared for future public health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
The BCC is now calling for the entire industry to back the drive to promote the APPG report to government through the nation’s MPs. The drive takes place under the umbrella of the BCC’s We Clean, We Care campaign.
With ’flu regularly reappearing and the constant threat of a new Covid variant, we are talking about measures that will protect people’s health and save lives.