A qualification in Facilities Management is a financially rewarding, broad-ranging career choice that gives you an opportunity to serve a clear purpose.
No two facilities managers are the same. Each role is different depending on the company and the area of the company that you work in. But each facilities manager is different too because they come from all different backgrounds. Whether you were a plumber, electrician, paramedic or worked in security, you can upskill your way to become a facilities manager.
Many facilities managers started out as cleaners before using education to move into management roles.
There is no single career background that qualifies you to become a facilities manager. But there is only one college in Ireland that can qualify you in Facilities Management.
Portobello Institute is the only college in Ireland offering an accredited degree and Masters programme specifically designed for Workplace and Facilities Management professionals.
Our IWFM Level 4 Diploma and our IWFM Level 5 Diploma courses begin on February 21st.
These are delivered online with webinars so you can work full-time and study at Portobello.
We understand you need to continually work while upskilling to step into management. We also understand the educational needs of those working in facilities management and the challenges of working long hours in a demanding role.
Like all of our Facilities Management staff, Bernard MacOscair is a Facilities Management Lecturer at Portobello while working a full-time job outside of the college. He’s even studying for his second Masters degree too, so he understands what’s required to advance in your career while living your life.
MacOscair is the Managing Director of Berka Solutions and he credits his own education for much of his success in the industry, “Learning is a lifelong habit. I’m still learning and I’m not in my 20s or 30s…if you’re going to have a career, and there are great career opportunities in Facilities Management, you need to be continually learning, you need to be upskilling.”
Having developed his own career, MacOscair now spends his days in Portobello developing the careers of others. He knows that the industry is built on people who have worked their way up from technical beginnings into roles of leadership. “To be able to manage budgets, to be able to manage people and to be able to get the most out of a team, you need a stronger skill set from that technical, initial core competency.”
“You can learn that with experience but really what Portobello and what education brings is a higher level of understanding to be able to give you the skill set to progress in a career and step up into supervisory management roles.”
Facilities Management Lead Lecturer Eoin O’Sullivan previously projected the Facility Market to be worth $1 trillion by 2025. MacOscair believes it is already there. This is an industry that is attached to every other industry. Any growth that happens in aviation or retail or manufacturing or whatever else it may be, comes with a greater need for facilities management professionals.
Ireland is not lacking in facilities management opportunities. As MacOscair notes, “Amazon is talking about opening new centers in Baldoyle and Shannon, both of those will [require various facilities management teams]. So as every economy and every industry grows, facilities management grows on the back of it.”
Both during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, there will be a growing need for qualified facilities management professionals. You can find out about our courses that start next week or any of our other Facilities Management courses by contacting Brandon at brandon.mclean@portobelloinstitute.com.
