BESA, on behalf of the Engineering Building Services Skills Authority (EBBSA,) are setting up Sector Groups (SG’s) in occupations within Building Services.  The SG’s purpose is to bring employers within specific occupation groups together to determine the roles that exist within that occupational area, thereafter determine a competency framework for these roles.  The IOR is pleased to be invited to support this work and to help co-ordinate outputs with its own plans to map skills needs and roles in the RACHP sector.

To prepare for this, BESA are conducting a period of information gathering to identify interested parties and thereafter we will meet to outline the process involved in this important area of work that will start early in 2025.  It is important that employers in the RACHP sector with an interest are the main drivers of the process and eventual outcomes – the view here is that users of the outcome must have their input in what emerges.

As an initial ask, please complete the attached survey to register your interest, and for us to gain an initial view of the scale of interest.  The survey will remain open until 10^th January. 

Survey Link:  https://forms.office.com/e/8AqTfRGunC

Background

The introduction of the Building Safety Act and subsequent updates to secondary legislation have put the need for competent individuals and capable organisations front and centre within a regulated structure.  Key to this is defining what ‘good’ looks like in terms of the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours required for individuals to be considered competent, and ensuring that appropriate methods are in place that will allow appropriate personnel to demonstrate that those ‘SKEB’ benchmarks have been/are being met.

The Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG) has come together under the Industry Competence Committee (ICC – a statutory sub-committee of Building Safety Regulator) to support this definition across the built environment, helping organisations to evidence that they are meeting their regulatory responsibilities, but more importantly to support improvements in safety.

BESA is part of the Engineering Services Super-Sector of ICSG ‘sector led group for installers and is now looking to kick off work on competence for installers within the RACHP sector.