CAREER DEVELOPMENT FM PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
THE BIFM’S FM PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS The FM professional standards, introduced in early 2014, represents the BIFM’s aim of embedding a set of performance standards as the norm for FM professionals and for business
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he standards have been created with FM industry stakeholders, experts and a professional standards writer and form a global competence model for the profession. The aim is for the standards to define the competences necessary to be an FM professional at every stage of their career, from a support role through to strategic management. The framework provides a
succinct view of the defined functional areas across the career levels and contains high-level statements of competence required of an individual. A handbook, available to BIFM members (download from www. bifm.org.uk/fmstandards) expands upon the high-level competence statements contained within the framework, setting out the uses and purposes of the standards. The framework identifies 10
The FM Professional Standards is a ‘living’ document to ensure they reflect the dynamic industry which is facilities management. BIFM has been able to demonstrate its own agility and dynamism by responding to a call by the government’s Built Environment Professional Education project to reflect how important FMs are when it comes to ‘Managing accessibility and inclusion’, which was subsequently included, not just in the Professional Standards, but also in the BIFM qualifications at levels 3 and 4.
“Congratulations to BIFM for being the first institution to change their professional standards to explicitly address the access needs of disabled people. This is major step towards making access and inclusion business-as-usual for all facilities managers. This will make a real difference to disabled people’s lives over time – a fitting legacy from our London 2012 Games, when we welcomed the world to the most accessible and inclusive Olympic and Paralympic Games ever.” – Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
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