FETA’s Belfield appointed to ICC

UK: FETA’s Wendy Belfield has been appointed to the Industry Competence Committee (ICC), recently set up by the HSE.

The ICC will have a key role to play in advising both the built environment industry and the Building Safety Regulator within the HSE on matters of competence.

Belfield, commercial director at BEMS controls specialist InTandem Systems, is a member of FETA’s recently established training and skills group, a T-Levels ambassador, and apprenticeship standard chair.

ICC members will provide direction and influence across the built environment and will publish guidance and advise industry and the Building Safety Regulator on industry competence.

Belfield has spearheaded the introduction of the BEMS Controls Engineer Apprenticeship for which she received the Building Controls Industry Association’s Outstanding Contribution of the Year Award in 2020.

As part of her voluntary work in the sector, Belfield has been promoting the key role of T-Levels in starting the professional route to competence at 16. 

Commenting on the appointment, Belfield said that she believed the ICC would have a huge impact in closing the skills gap within the industry whilst ensuring professional competence was achieved. 

“There is a massive skills shortage in a very competitive marketplace and it’s a massive challenge for our sector, particularly for SMEs.”

She added: “Building services engineering is not an obvious career path for many young people so we need to make it an attractive industry first and foremost and once we have got the new talent in we must make sure that the training is in place that will provide them with the skills needed to maintain and improve industry standards, as well as giving them a fulfilling long-term career that they can promote to other potential young engineers.”