Sir Jackie Stewart has been promoting a scheme that helps cleaners to read and write. The three times Formula One winner was in Northern Ireland as the special guest of Asset Skills, the Sector Skills Council for the cleaning industry.

“I struggled for a long time with letters and words and really thought there was something wrong with me,” he said. “Once I sought advice and support I discovered there are many other adults who suffer similar problems and are too embarrassed to speak out.”

The reputation of training courses organised by BICSc continues to draw visitors from ever further away.  Recently James Mukiri, technical sales manager for Soilex Prosolve in Nairobi, Kenya visited the UK to attend a BICSc training course at Matthew Boulton College in Birmingham.

As one of the leading college's in the country for the cleaning and facilities sector, Merton College was an obvious choice for training the UK representatives for Euroskills 2008.

Euroskills is a team-based vocational competition with countries from across Europe competing at the finals in Holland this Autumn. Mary Schramm, who will be leading the training of the UK Team Clean competitors, said: "Euroskills is important for improving recognition of cleaning as a skill. We want people to see cleaning as a career choice and that will only be achieved by raising the skills and professionalism of companies and their staff."

All customer facing staff at JohnsonDiversey in the UK will have completed CIEH accredited food safety training by the end of June, according to the company.

The initiative is designed to provide staff with unprecedented and unrivalled understanding and expertise when advising customers on the most appropriate cleaning processes, products and tools. Research completed by the company showed that catering customers wanted their suppliers of chemicals to know about food safety or would choose a supplier who had food safety knowledge.

Asset Skills has welcomed two major moves by Government to help raise the skills of adult learners.

The Chancellor’s budget saw the announcement of an extra £60 million of resources over the next three years to help the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) provide new opportunities to help workers unlock their talents.