The column

When you are introduced to a fellow guest at a dinner party or a new acquaintance in the pub, and they ask you what your job is, are you proud to say: 'I work in facilities management.'?

Do people look at you blankly and wonder what facilities management means and move on to talk to somebody more interesting?

The problem with facilities management as a career is that the benefits of joining this profession are not immediately obvious and there are few high-profile role models, who can inspire young graduates. Try telling someone that the right approach to facilities management can be more important in creating a productive working environment than the high-profile architect who designed the trophy office building. So what needs to be done to make facilities management a more attractive career?

To start with we need to be more passionate about our profession — we make a difference to the conditions in which people work or how they receive treatment in hospital.

We can have a direct impact on a company's bottom line and we are a major industry in the UK probably employing two million people. Facilities managers have a crucial role to play in creating a sustainable environment and are at the heart of health and safety.

Education — for new entrants and to develop the people assets already within this industry is, thankfully, high on the agenda of most of the facilities management bodies in the UK. However, for universities to develop new courses they need to demonstrate that a demand exists and to some extent we are in a 'chicken and egg' position.

I have no hesitation in recommending facilities management as a career; this is a fast moving industry with variety and opportunity for personal development.

My other option when asked what job I do, is to say I am a chartered surveyor — this gets around being perceived as a janitor but often leads to being led into the utility room to check the damp patch.

It could be worse though. When the BBC was developing the character for Bob, the boring one in the seventies hit series, the Likely Lads, the writers chose quantity surveying as an appropriate job.