The skills and talents of the UK’s best cleaners have been recognised at an awards ceremony in central London. The entrants took part in two cleaning competitions organised by Asset Skills, the Sector Skills Council for the cleaning industry. One contest was open to industry, the other took place within prisons.
The heats in the open contest took place last year. The award for best cleaner in the 2008 Team Clean Challenge went to Annette Giblin, from Rentokil Initial at BP Hull. The joint first prize for best cleaning team went TC Contractors and Rentokil-Initial. The event was also held in 16 prisons earlier this year. The top award in this strand went to HMP Pentonville, London.
Everyone involved in the contest - entrants, judges, organisers and trainers - gathered at a venue in Westminster recently to see the trophies handed out.
Teams were put through rigorous assessments of their practical responses to a set of scenarios. When deciding the winners the judges looked at social skills and project management.
The winners of the open competition were:
- Joint Best Cleaning Teams: TC Contractors and Rentokil Initial, BP Hull.
- Runner up team: MITIE Prime.
- Best Cleaner: Annette Giblin, Rentokil Initial, BP Hull.
- Best Supervisor: Dominic Stacey, TC Contractors.
- Best Manager: Edward Green, OCS.
- The winners of the prisons’ strand were:
- Best Cleaning Team: HMP Pentonville.
- Runner up team: HMP Winchester.
- Best Cleaner: Brian Cunningham, HMP Highdown.
- Best Supervisor: Terry Dixon, HMP Ashwell.
- Best Manager: Angela Ward, HMP Foston Hall.
- Best Youth Offending Institute Cleaners: Feltham.
Selection is now taking place until September for the next round of competitions. Asset Skills is looking for cleaning teams to go forward to represent the UK at EuroSkills Lisbon 2010 and WorldSkills London 2011.