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WIFI Academy for Facility Management
Start date: Sep 1, 2014, End date: Aug 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The Facility Management (FM) as defined by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and ratified by 31 European countries is "integration of processes within an organization to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities". The main aim of the FM sector is to provide a safe and healthy place for living and work. In 2009 the International FM Association identified 11 core FM competencies - communication; emergency preparedness and business continuity; environmental stewardship and sustainability; finance and business; human factors; leadership and strategy; operations and maintenance; project management; quality; real estate and property management; and technology. Nowadays FM is subject to continuous innovation and development. Additional advantage but also challenge is that FM is both integrated and interdisciplinary. Different competences and skills from diverse professions could be directed to particular FM courses and trainings. At the same time FM has to operate at both levels - strategic-tactical and operational. These give great opportunity for many people to qualify or re-qualify but FM’s interdisciplinary nature sets a constant challenge before the organisations involved in FM education and training - to answer the persistent development of all areas of knowledge constituting the FM discipline. Based on a good Austrian practice, this project aims at developing and piloting an innovative, multilingual platform for online distance training in FM - WIFI Facility Management Academy (WIFI-FMA). It will present comprehensive online training materials in English, Bulgarian, German, Hungarian and Serbian languages applying trainee-friendly learning methods. The project has cross-sectoral nature as it will impact many sectors. It will directly impact on VET and will affect the adult education and youth. It could give incitement for better development of the higher education and surely complement it. The project adds value to the Erasmus+ objectives. WIFI-FMA contributes for achieving the five ambitious objectives defined by Europe 2020 on employment, innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy. The project corresponds to the third strategic objective of the strategic framework for EU Cooperation in Education and Training 2020 (ET 2020), namely “enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training – the acquisition of transversal competences by all citizens should be promoted and the functioning of the knowledge triangle (education-research-innovation) should be ensured. Partnerships between enterprises and educational institutions as well as broader learning communities with civil society and other stakeholders should be promoted”. A market survey was commissioned and conducted in March 2014. It shows that the FM professional training in Bulgaria is in early stage, with limited supply and growing demand. There is no online training or education responding the needs of both the individual trainees and private/public sector. There is no training introducing the European standards in FM, while offering mobility, flexibility, affordability and holistic approach even for people with disadvantages, hence the professional FM community in Bulgaria is ready to support the introduction of such training platform. Key Senior Experts engaged in different project activities; tutors engaged in the trainings; trainees interested in self-education, single course, all courses one-by-one, full WIFI-FMA Program at once; other interested parties/stakeholders interested in the topic will be the project participants. The project will consider good practices of transparent management, EU horizontal principles, and requirements of Erasmus+ and project experts will develop methodologies addressing the different types of innovative FM distance trainings, trainees’ evaluation and internal monitoring. The project represents a first attempt to develop an EU-wide open model of continuous professional development in FM. Among the main project results are WIFI-FMA - developed and tested innovative, multilingual platform for online and distance training and self-education in Facility Management; developed training materials in 5 languages - 4 EU and Serbian; successfully tested training platform within 2 years test period; 400 trainees; successful partnership among 6 partners from 4 countries; launched online forum allowing exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience hence supporting cross-sectoral relations. Across Europe the expected impact is: 1) A more aligned relationship between both training provision and needs for people employed in the FM sector. 2) A more standardised European framework for distance, online training of those working in the FM sector. 3) Shedding light on of the gaps/challenges for FM workers seeking to update their knowledge and skills both locally and across Europe.

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