IFMA Foundation Announces New Academic Recognition – The Registered Degree Program (RDP)

For over twenty years the IFMA Foundation has served as the global accrediting body for the Facility Management Accredited Degree Programs (ADP), setting the academic standards and criteria for college and university programs which offer associate, bachelor, master and post-graduate degrees. The IFMA Foundation announces the creation of the new Registered Degree Program (RDP) to allow educational institutions to give college certificates that equip graduates with the core competencies of facility management. This coursework will provide the education needed for students to move right into the workplace. The RDP will create a continuum that will lead to the creation of new facility management Accredited Degree Programs. “This new category of education qualification will accelerate new programs for facility management and result in a workforce with more consistent and robust training for both the public and private sectors,” said Nancy J. Sanquist, IFMA Foundation Chair and IFMA Fellow.

With 49 being the average age of current facility managers and 50 percent of them retiring in the next five to 10 years, the field of facility management is in critical need for highly trained workers and managers. To add to this crisis, there will be at least 500,000 job openings during this same time period and currently, there are less than 1,000 professionally trained facility management students graduating each year. The new RDP program will result in more qualified students, who either are just beginning career preparation or changing their jobs, can begin their education in more locations around the world, be eligible for scholarships to pay for their education and/or start work faster with premier IFMA Foundation Global Workforce Initiative organizations like Sodexo and ABM.

“The RDP equips academic institutions with the ability to offer top notch facility management education and prepare students for the facility management jobs of today and the future. Most
importantly, the RDP requires foundational content to include the core competencies carefully vetted by global facility management professionals with proven value in today’s work environment.” Said Regina Ford Cahill, IFMA Foundation Trustee and Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee and Facility Management Accreditation Commission (FMAC).

For academic institutions seeking to become a Registered Facility Management Program, the criteria and standards can be found here http://foundation.ifma.org/academics.