Goal

1. Education

In other words, with education several accredited education forms are provided by IFMEC.

The Post Bachelor FM is registered and recognised by the Dutch HBO (Bachelor) accreditation. The exam commission is presented by core university professors and employed Facility Managers. The exam committee of the Post Bachelor is composed of core teachers from universities and prominent Facility Managers from the field. Research shows that this form of education supports the field of FM and that this form of education is still sought.

The Executive MBA FM, which is offered in cooperation with the Maastricht School of Management, was given the AMBA accreditation in 2005. With this, IFMEC and MSM offer the only Executive MBA FM in the Netherlands. In addition, this education is accredited by the Dutch-Flemish accreditation association as well as the world accreditation.

The graduation day, which takes place once a year, is accompanied by an international group of people. Among them are prominent guest speakers like Jan Figel (Euro commissioner Research and Education), Minister Camiel Eurlings, Minister Bert Koenders, Minister Maria van der Hoeven en His Excellence L.D. (Dorji) Wangdi (alumnus MSM and Minister for Labor and Human Resources of Bhutan).  

The Executive MBA FM is a general Executive MBA which focuses on the development of new business directors. What makes this form of education unique is the enrolment of specific participants. Potential participants are personally approached.

The in-company training is focused on the following aspects of businesses: client orientation, telecommunication, front desk, team building, and communication. These trainings vary in duration from 2 to 30 days and can be provided in combination with other business development processes.

2. Consultancy

Consulting and coaching facility department in times of change are other activities of IFMEC. Facility departments as well as managers from different sectors have cooperated with IFMEC. Some examples are: hospitality, real estate and technical maintenance, procurement, ICT, financial management and human resource management. This wide range and years of experience have led to the large network IFMEC has.

3. Interim management

IFMEC is currently focusing on sectors like real estate, front desk, and procurement and catering in the large sense of the word.

- Housing: housing plan preparation, setting technical column.
- Front desk: protocols, from help desk to service desk, organizing the business desk.
- Procurement: Purchasing preparation protocols, European procurement, organizing procurement organization.
- Catering: outsourcing food Research, quality assurance research, prepare food policy, food system organization, replacing head nutrition.

With the large network IFMEC maintains, IFMEC is able to provide interim management in all those sectors. To illustrate, the knowledge and experience of more than 500 facility managers are combined with that of IFMEC in order to support the sector they are working in.

4. Research

Research is done in several areas that have an important (direct or non-direct) relation with Facility Management like the health care sector, outsourcing aspects, the relation between FM and ICT and Art and FM.

5. Other activities

Study days:

Every year, the traditional study days are organised which all have a different theme.

Special education:

IFMEC provides the market with a book completely dedicated to the education in FM. This book is distributed by the Dutch Association of Facility Managers (FMN) among its members. A digital version is available on this website, the FMN website and on www.onderwijsspecial.nl  

FM and Art:

In 2009 IFMEC organised the event ‘Facility Management and Art’ in cooperation with TEFAF. Themes about art and business:
1. Acquisition and art appreciation.
2. And security risks.
3. Corporate image and art.
4. Arts Management: cost and profit.

The 24 hours of Maastricht

Different FM disciplines are discussed during the so-called yearly ’24 hours of Maastricht’. This is a research programme that ‘was born’ in 2005 and has a highly academic aspect to it. MSM is the host of this event as it takes place in the building of MSM. During this event, trends within FM are presented and discussed.  Results are published in a book for the Dutch FM Association and form the basis for a new book on functional strategy by Jan van Dalen and Leo Laanen. Below an overview of the last topics that were discussed during the 24 hours of Maastricht:

24 hours of Maastricht:
2005: Shared Service Centers and FM
2006: Human Resource Management and FM
2007: Marketing, Procurement, Logistics and FM
2008: Management Accounting and FM
2009: ICT and FM
2010: Real Estate, Housing and FM
2011: Sustainability, Energy and Leadership
2012: Code Corporate Social Market Behavior