The Australian cleaning industry has taken a step forward with the formation of a steering committee for the Cleaning and Hygiene Council of Australia (CHCA), an umbrella body created to represent all facets of our cleaning industry.

“An emphasis on a national curriculum and certification of cleaning operators is the number one focus for CHCA, bringing together all the present qualifications and training courses already established.

“Representatives of all the interested bodies and associations within the cleaning industry have formed into sub-committees to report back to the Council on the main subjects the Council will be representing the Industry on,” stated Terry Fraser, chairman of the steering committee.

The sub-committee responsible for training, to be named Australian Cleaning Institute, is looking at the British Institute of Cleaning Science’s 93 training skills curriculum, to determine which skills are suited to cover every aspect of cleaning within the industry. These will be reviewed and aligned within the current Australian Quality Training Framework to ensure that training still remains within the government funded training package guidelines.

According to Fraser, “It is anticipated that once the skills agenda has been formalised those who have already graduated from the various certificate courses should meet the criteria, and they will be asked to become members of the Australian Cleaning Institute, which will register their qualifications and issue appropriate certificates and initials. These members would then have access to further develop their skills by enrolling in additional levels of training which would not have been covered in their basic training.”

The Property Council; governments; Construction and Property Services Industry Skills Council (CPSISC); facility and property managers; and RTOs will be asked to join and support the training and assessment of the various skills, helping to ensure there is one curriculum recognised by all the Australian cleaning industry.

Fraser noted that, “The standardisation of training and assessment processes and subsequent monitoring of these will mean that varied standards of training delivery and assessment of competence will no longer be acceptable and the benchmark will have been raised for the cleaning industry.

“Involvement of all stakeholders will result in CHCA being able to lobby for changes and improvements to the Asset Maintenance training package and cleaning industry standards as a cohesive and credible body.”