Facilities Service Manager Hamid of FBICSc describes his journey into a career in the cleaning industry.
I began my career in the cleaning industry almost by chance. Having spent 2 years in the army as a corporal, immediately after college graduation, initially started to work in a bank as a cashier. I remember leaving the bank and my first day as a cleaning operative, I was inducted, issued with fresh/new full uniform and introduced to staff and working areas.
Luckily my new employer was a BICSc approved training centre and I was put through to COPC stage 1 and 2. It was not a case of you standing, breathing and can you hold a mop, this end for holding and that end on the floor for mopping, training finished get on with it.
Initially I thought it was a lot of details for a mere cleaning role, maybe I was young or should I say younger. As I started putting the training into practice while working and doing the daily tasks as per the given work schedule based on specifications in reference to dilution rates, colour coding, COSHH, electrical safety, hand hygiene, PPE, displaying caution signs, I began to understand the importance of each element and how those interlinked into other areas such as health and safety, sustainability and environment, laws and regulations.
I then learned more about microbiology & the chemistry background of substances used and the Interaction of cleaning agents’ surfactants with the surfaces, its different types and how molecules are differing and positively and negatively charged intrigued me so I researched more and got involved with the training side further. That is how I got more and more involved with the training and development side over the years.
Since then I have been involved directly in staff training and development programmes wherever I have worked across the UK and have put almost 900 plus staff through their BICSc LTP licences and moved on to do more skills on level 1, 2 and 3. I enjoyed it then and still enjoy it now.
It’s no secret and I can’t hide the fact that I love the institute and I have yet to come across another set of nationally accredited qualifications which come even remotely close to BICSc skill suites. This historical institute has been in place since 1961 and has almost 50,000 individual and corporate members globally and continues to be industry leader in training & development and move on with recent innovations/technologies and remain up to date & relevant.
What makes BICSc unique is its emphasis that places on valuing our hard-working domestic/cleaning/support staff (considering they were our heroes during this recent sad times of pandemic-it’s amazing how quickly some people forget) on one hand and on the other hand its own proper set of training skills suite which is best practice and delivered in two formats; theory and then practical followed by a thorough assessment and eventually globally recognised accreditations which is world class.
I have personally witnessed how this training transforms our staff’s careers, improves the cleaning services provided and how motivating and engaging it can be.
Within my current role as Facilities Services Manager here at University of Northampton we have fully embraced BICSc standards and our business model for soft services are built on its framework. We are proud to be both Corporate and ATM members of BICSc. We have so far licensed almost 100 staff members on LTP and moved on to deliver a package of 10 selected skills (Combination of Base/Additional/Specialist Units) to all our employees.
This is parallel with our organisations’ visions/values and its mission statement and in support of provision of excellent services for our students and other stakeholders.
