Empower your career with IFMA Professional Development

All right, so Kim Coffey will also be joining me today. I'm going to go ahead and kick us off just so we can get started. Thank you everyone for joining. We're super excited to do this for you guys. So we want today to be really educational, really informative, and at the end hopefully conversational. We want you guys to ask questions as we go along. You guys can submit questions to the chat that we'll be keeping an eye on and then address at the end. You can also unmute yourself at any time or raise your hand and I'll be able to unmute you if you want to ask a question. Feel free to pop on video. You don't have to by any means but you're more than welcome to. We are recording this session just so everyone is aware and we're going to be talking about what we offer from a training and PD's perspective and hopefully get you guys started on your educational journey. So just to introduce myself, my name is Brittany Willoughby. I'm an account manager in the Professional Development Department. So I work really closely with our partners when they want to host training for their teams. I do anything from consulting for which class is going to be best for them or which course, I'm sorry, which course is going to be best all the way to enrolling their students. And Kim will also be joining me here in a few minutes. Sorry guys trying to get her in. Kim if you can hear me, I'm not able to unmute you or anything. I'm trying to trying to add you. I'm trying a couple different ways here. So we'll get Kim in here with us eventually. So if not just to give you guys a little bit of background on what exactly the International Facility Management Association is. We are the only association for facility managers with four decades of experience. We're the most trusted and experienced association and we are a family of 23,000 people and that's spread across over 100 different countries. So what we offer you guys is a lot of networking benefits. It's a chance to really you join a family. It's a family of 23,000 plus people and our mission is to advance facility management worldwide. We're also a resource for trends, for training and professional development which is what we are going to be talking about today and then also networking with your peers. All right so there are a couple things that that are necessary in order to be successful in facility management. So we're just going to go left to right here. So you really need to have a passion for staying up to date on industry trends and that is something that we really try to focus on. Things at IFMA are always changing. Facility management is always changing and so IFMA is right there keeping up with those trends. You also need to have a solid foundation in the fundamentals of facility management which is something that we'll cover a little bit later. That's what one of our courses actually does and then you need to be determined to make an impact on your organization and you also need confidence in your expertise which is something that can be verified by credentials. So those are some of the skills that are essential in facility management. So before we talk about our courses, we're going to talk about where where do the basis for these courses come from. Kim and I, there she is! Yay! Okay Kim, I think you are muted. Hi everybody, thank you so much for your patience. Thank you Brittany. Love technology. We always get challenged by technology issues and so that's something that facilities people experience all the time and it's never fun. So I'm joining in. It looks like right at the perfect time, Brittany. Shall I go over the global job task analysis? Yeah, absolutely. Take it away. Okay, wonderful. So IFMA has a process by which we identify what the core competencies are that a facility manager has to do in order to do their job, to perform their job. And this is not IFMA coming up with it. Brittany and I don't sit somewhere together and yes, we know what what FM's do. This is a global job task analysis. It has a lot of methodology behind it. We perform it every five to seven years and we communicate with FM's around the globe to ask them what is it that they're doing so that we can identify things that are not necessarily a trend but are actually core components of being a facility manager. This provides the basis for our body of knowledge. There's 11 items there. You're going to be seeing these throughout our presentation. We have more information on our website so at any point as you are thinking about this presentation feel free to go to ifma.org and you will find more information under our website. So again, this just allows us to bring everything up to one global standard for facility managers. So if you're sitting in Bangalore or if you're sitting in Houston, Texas, you're going to find the best practices and standards that you should follow to have a highly efficient and a great operating facility. So one thing that we want you guys to take away from today is how you can find and get started essentially on your educational path and so IFMA has something for everyone whether you're looking for a full-blown credential, a certification, if you're looking for just a little tidbit of knowledge that you want to dive deeper into one of those core competency areas. We have something for everyone. Our courses are globally recognized and they're accredited and that just really provides that added level of competence both in the credential and the credential holder. So we're going to talk about all of these courses before we get into the nitty-gritty. We're going to talk about who these courses are meant for. So starting with essentials. Essentials is good for those who are new to facility management or facility management adjacent and what I mean by that is that could be someone who is working for a facility management company. Let's say you work for a facility services company but you don't, you're not a facility manager. You work close to facility managers or you work for a facility management company. For a perfect example for this one, when I joined with IFMA almost two years ago, I actually took this course because I was completely new to facility management. I had no idea what it was, what it entailed and so what essentials did is it really introduced me to FM as a whole and I got a good idea for verbiage that you guys use and things that you, on a high level of things that you guys are faced with, challenges that you're faced with every single day. So that's who the essentials is meant for. The FMP is going to give you a good base of facility management knowledge. It's for those who really are looking to build, build on that base and take a deeper dive into four of the key areas that have been identified as essential for facility managers. The SFP is going to be focused on sustainability and that's for those who are looking to impact their association's triple bottom line and then the CFM, I call it our creme de la creme, this one is a certification and so in order to, in order to get this certification, you really need to have a good foundation of knowledge. So your FMP and SFP is good for those who have been in facility management, you know, a couple of years and are looking to increase credibility. For the certified facility manager, you really need to have a solid at least five years of experience that you can pull from that knowledge base that you can pull from. So that would be for the more experienced, maybe you're in upper level management, you're transitioning into a management role, that's who the CFM is going to be good for. All right, so we're going to do that deeper dive that Brittany had mentioned. We will do it for each of our programs but also I do want to, for those of you that may just be joining us or watching this, we're going to get into beyond professional credentials, training and development because it is a lifelong journey, you never stop learning and IFMA is there to be your partner throughout that entire process. Right now we're looking at essentials and as Brittany had mentioned, this is great for someone who is just coming into facility management. It's also really good for technicians who maybe work on the building, the large building service areas such as HVAC or, you know, chillers, these big systems and are interested in what does it take to be a facility manager. This gives an overview of managing a facility. It's separated into three different focus areas. Each one of these squares represent an individual module. So it is flexible, you can pop in and take, if you're interested in what's under focus area three, you can look at the supervisory roles and that could be a standalone course that you take or you can take all 10. We do recommend all 10 because that will give you that full overview of it and then at the end you will get a certificate of verification that shows that you have gone in and gone through this program. So the next page, this is what you'll see on our website. This gives you the pricing for that as I mentioned. You can do these as individual modules which really helps you hone in on the area that you're most interested in and that's $70 US for members. If you are interested in the full bundle, either for yourself or maybe somebody who's on your team, that would be at $510 for IFMA members and more information, of course, is always available on our website. So something I want to mention also before I dive deeper into the FMP is you are by no means required to start with essentials and then go to FMP and then SFP and then CFM. You could be a facility manager who has 15 years of experience and you're looking for a certification, go for your CFM. That's not by any means a rule and a ladder that you have to follow step by step. It's just kind of giving you an idea of who our courses are meant for. You can absolutely get your SFP and then take essentials and then take your CFM exam. So just to give you an idea. So let's talk about the facility management professional, the FMP. So this consists of four modules. You can see them listed there on the right and what you will do is study the material that you are given and you'll have to take and pass a final assessment associated with each of those modules. So that is how you complete the FMP. This is a lifetime credential. Once you have it, it doesn't expire. There aren't maintenance points. Nobody can take it away. It is yours for life. You get all the materials that are needed to complete it from beginning to end when you sign up and then once you complete it, you'll have to submit your application for that credential along with an additional fee. Pricing. So you have two options to purchase the FMP. You can purchase it individually module by module if you wanted to start little by little or if you're looking for just training in one of those four areas, you can absolutely do that as well or you can purchase it all together. Member pricing is $15.50 and you have the option to add a hard copy of the book. It is by no means required but some people just prefer having something to bunny ear and highlight and take notes in so you can absolutely do that. The sustainability facility professional is that credential that will show three focus areas in being able to run any facility that you're in in a sustainable method. I think all of us have probably been hearing quite a bit in the news about utilizing our resources better, being more environmentally aware, really watching to see how we consume those. We all know facilities consume quite a bit of resources whether it's power or water. It also produces a lot of waste. So to be able to make an impact, I feel that that's on everybody's shoulders. This is something that all of our facility managers should strive for. The SFP is not a specialized credential. It is the next step in your evolution of being a well-rounded facility professional. This will show you the strategy. It will show you managing sustainable facilities and then operating sustainable facilities. So again, it's not teaching you what to think but it's teaching you how to think and apply these principles. Just like the FMP, it contains all of the different materials that you need to complete and achieve this credential. You've got quizzes. You have a glossary of terms. You've got flash cards. It is definitely a lot of content and a lot of learning but it is very much worth it. You will have a lifelong credential and you will be an SFP and be able to manage sustainable facilities. And here are the costs for 1595 a member, 1895 non-member. Notice that it does not allow you the opportunity to buy anything in an individual module. It's because this is a complete program. It takes you through those three focus areas. So unlike the FMP, this is not covering four different competencies. This is truly all about sustainability at that deeper dive, more strategic level. And as you guys are seeing also the member and non-member rates, you guys are not required to join IFMA to take our courses and you're not required to maintain a membership to maintain your certification. We're going to talk about the CFM next. But we do give you a little bit of a discount and a little insider tip. Your fees are essentially paid for with that discount. So if you wanted to join and get that member rate, it pretty much cancels out the cost of a membership and then you get to take advantage of all the other benefits of membership. So CFM, there are a couple different ways that this differs from FMP and SFP and I want to start there. So whereas the FMP and SFP are knowledge-based credentials, we're giving you materials to study and saying, hey, once you master these concepts, you'll pass the exam and you'll have your credential. The CFM is, it's more competency-based. So this really, it shows that you know your stuff in simple layman's terms. So there are a couple different steps. There are no required prerequisite materials or anything that you have to do or study or pass in order to sit for the exam. There are eligibility requirements and you can see those on the bottom left. It's combination of education and work experience. And the reason for that is you're presented with this multiple choice test. It's 180 questions. It's proctored either in a proctoring, test proctoring center, or it can be virtually proctored. Now you are presented with questions that have five answers that sound really good, but you have to be able to use the knowledge that you have as a facility manager and pick out which one is the best one. I kind of relate it to the SATs. It's, you know, a lot of these could work, but which one is going to be the best, the best way to do this and answer this question. So that also requires recertification every three years. There are continuing education requirements that have to be met. Again, it is a globally recognized certification. And something I do want to share with you guys, I actually had a conversation, it was yesterday or the day before, and somebody had called me and they were asking me questions about the FMP and CFM. And the reason that he was calling me is because he is looking for a new job and the job that he wants, they have on their FMP or CFM highly preferred. So employers are looking for these credentials, whether you are somebody looking to just advance in the current position that you're in, or if you're someone that's looking to make yourself more marketable for your next job, these are certifications and credentials that are highly sought after. Businesses and companies all over the world know them and are looking for them. And here are some of the costs. So we, oh, let me go back. We offer preparatory tools. So there are no requirements to study for this, but we do give you tools. We don't just toss you out on an island and expect you to pass and know everything. This is a very difficult exam. It's definitely not one you can snooze through. So we offer practice exams. There are also virtual exam prep workshops that we offer and then individual competency courses that can give you a review of those competencies, just so you feel prepared going in. So these are the exam fees again, and that's the exam and application costs. So you'll apply to sit for that exam and then the credentials team will go through and approve you, and then you can schedule and sit for it. One thing that I would add to what Brittany is sharing is on our website at IFMA.org, there is a CFM handbook. So for those of you who are really, you've got the experience and you want to know, okay, what does all of this require? The CFM handbook is priceless. It will give you all of the details that you need, kind of goes over, shows you all of the core competencies that this will be tested on, lets you know how those areas are weighted on the exam. So it gives you a good understanding because a lot of times it's just you need that confidence to be built up to be able to sit for the exam. You will be amazed. I mean, it's testing your ability to apply concepts, and that's why there is not a specific course that you would read to say, okay, now I'm going to pass my CFM exam. You have to have the knowledge to apply, or excuse me, the experience to apply your knowledge, and that's what this exam is testing you on. That's also why it has to be recertified because if you think about it, in three years, how much has changed in the FM industry? A lot. And so we need you to stay on top of your game because that is what the CFM shows, is that you are at the top of your game. You can walk into any facility and be able to handle what comes at you, and that's why, as Brittany said, this really is the creme de la creme because you can apply everything that you know to the running of that facility. I would be willing to bet also that a lot of you have people in your network that you don't even realize have these credentials, and so start paying attention and looking on LinkedIn or in emails or whatever you see come across, and look for the FMP, look for the SFP, look for the CFM after their name, and ask them. I mean, there's really no better person to tell you than your own peers. We can talk about this stuff all day and tell you how great it is, but at the end of the day, we're not facility managers. We're part of an association for facility managers, and you guys are our family, but the best place for it to come from is really from your own peers, so if you start looking and looking for those credential letters, you probably will see them. Exactly, and throughout our presentation, you've heard both Brittany and I mention competency courses. IFMA has taken a huge step forward in, as I mentioned before, being your lifelong learning partner. The credentials, professional credentials, are absolutely something that people should aspire to. However, let's be realistic sometimes. You've got family. You've got work. You're trying to balance everything. Maybe you don't have time to really pursue a full-on professional credential, but you do need that extra bit of information and learning to help you either in your current job or if you're looking at a job you want to apply to, maybe even move to within your organization, and it has a skill set that you haven't mastered yet. We have those individual courses that will get you the training you need, but do it in such a way that we're fitting our training to your needs instead of you fitting your needs to what our training is, and the way that we're doing that is that first bullet point, seven new individual courses. This wheel that you see in the graphic shows all 11 core competencies. All 11 core competencies have their own standalone. It includes all of the material that you need online to be able to complete it. It's very content rich. It's great information. The user tools are very user-friendly, and at the end of it, you will have CEU, so you'll have those continuing education units, so if you have maybe a professional designation from a different organization, that can go toward your professional development units. There's a final assessment, so that tests you on did you learn what we said you would learn, and then you get a certificate of completion, but on top of that, you also have a digital verification of that knowledge, and that's something that we'll get to here in a minute. Next slide, please, Brittany. So even with the FMP, because it has four of those competencies, remember, these can be taken individually, so let's say that you are knowing that the position you're in, you're going to start having to manage a lot of different projects. Maybe you haven't been exposed to that side of facility management yet. You can choose to take just the project management course. It shows you here on this screen the different main learning objectives for each one of these, so even though you may not be setting out to get your FMP, over time you can add these other courses, and then once you've taken these four individual courses, then you would submit your application and say, hey, I've taken all four of them. I'd like my FMP now, please, and it's a great way to approach it instead of all at once. On this next slide, you'll see four more of those 11. I do want to point out sustainability. We just spent quite a bit of time talking about obtaining your SFP. Sustainability, again, is interwoven in every facility, no matter what vertical market you're supporting, if you're an airport or if you're a college university. It is something that is critical for you to know and understand. This standalone course is really focusing on the key concepts of sustainability, so you don't have to go after your SFP to get more of that core competency, but let's say you do come in, you take this sustainability course, and you realize, okay, this is really good information. I need to go to that next step. I need the strategy and how to operate and maintain a sustainable building, so I want my SFP. The money that you invest in this single course will be applied toward the purchase of your SFP program, so you don't need to be concerned that you're spending your money twice on the same thing. This will get you into that next step. IFMA gives you credit for what you spend when you purchase the sustainability standalone course, and then these are the other three that round out those 11 core competencies. Again, this information is on ifma.org. We've got a lot more information, and then we've also provided our contact information, so you can certainly send Brittany or I a question via email or call and talk to us, and we're happy to help you. And this, again, this is actually taken straight from our website, so this will let you know of the seven standalone courses, so not the first four that get you to your FMP credential. The seven standalone courses that are outside of the FMP are $249 per course. We also have, if you purchase more than one, there's better pricing in there, so all of that's available on our website. These are also, they vary in length of time from two to five hours, so again, this is very attainable for you to go in and get that additional knowledge to help you, again, either in your current job or a job that you're interested in moving into. So, we offer a couple different learning models. One thing that this last year has really done for us is it's allowed us to fine-tune the virtual aspect of our courses. So, the first option you can see is self-study, so this is someone who's going to move at their own pace. You can do it. We have different guides that can help you kind of allocate that time and set aside specific time that's uninterrupted that you can study these courses. You can complete that in as little as four months. I would say average, we see people complete in four to, I would say nine, four to nine months, depending on your work schedule. Again, it's that study option is self-paced, so you do it when you can do it. I know life can be crazy, and that gives you... But, Brittany, I would say real quick, though, complete in as little as four months, that's the FMP? Yes, yes, that is the FMP. So, there's obviously going to be a lot of different courses, but the FMP being that foundational credential, we did want to let you know that not to be overwhelmed, it's something that you can attain. So, if you set it as a goal that you want to maybe reach by the end of 2021, it totally is attainable, and you can do that via self-study, so it fits into your schedule of work and family. Absolutely, yes. Thank you for remembering that, and I believe we have a slide coming up about time commitment, too, just to give you guys a better idea of what to expect when you sign up for these courses. Another option is to take our courses in classroom. We are seeing this resume. I'm seeing more and more of our chapters coming to me and saying, hey, we're ready. We have a lot of people that are interested. So, you can go online. You can look for courses in our course catalog and try to find something close to you. If you're kind of that in-betweener, and you don't quite want to commit to two full days in a classroom, but you need a little bit of help to move forward in the material, the virtual FMP is going to be for you. So, for each of those four modules, we have four individual classes. So, if you wanted to sign up for operations and maintenance, we offer a virtual add-on that goes with that, and what it consists of is it's a weekly webinar. It's live with an instructor. They're 90 minutes long, and it gives you a chance to interact with the instructor, interact with other people that are taking the class. The instructor has slides. They'll go over the main concepts. You can ask questions, and it really forces you to move forward through the material because you do have to read before you attend that webinar. So, this is a great way to help you progress through that material, and you can complete it in as little as five to six weeks, depending on how many chapters per module. The classes will either be five to six weeks. Yeah, on these learning models, one thing that I want to say is I'm the best procrastinator there is, and so the hardest part is just getting started, and we've got a study guide that we've put together with kind of a recipe for success. We built it around the FMP because, again, that's been our foundational credential. It has the four really most key components to what you do on a daily basis, and the main thing that we put in there, and it's because we've heard this from people who've gone through our program, is just put together a schedule and hold yourself to it. Make yourself accountable, but when you break it down, and that's one thing the virtual FMP class will help you do is it will give you that homework. So, you would have a chapter that you would read. You would attend the webinar. You can ask the instructor questions. The instructor will bring real-world experiences in there, which really help to tie in the concepts with how you apply it with what you're doing on a daily basis, and then taking the final assessment is that next piece, and then you're ready to move on to the next one. So, when you break it down into manageable chunks, something that can be very, I think, overwhelming becomes accessible, and then what you're learning applies to what you're doing on the daily, and that helps you in your job, which can relieve stress and get you ready for that next step. So, there's a lot of great things to doing this training. So, speaking of time commitment, that's a perfect slide. It's almost like you planned that, Brittany. So, this time commitment, I'm not going to read the slide to you. A lot of it is depending on your personal abilities, right? Some of us can read and retain knowledge like that. I'm not that person. I have to go back over it. I take notes. I study. So, I might have, if I'm looking at the FMP, I might be closer to the 12-hour spectrum, whereas Brittany, I think she reads things, retains things, and she might be nine hours. So, it really depends on you individually. These are just averages, but it's always good to understand and prepare yourself for what you're committing to, and it makes sense. These credentials are globally recognized, and they're respected because there's value to them, and you will learn, and you will be able to add to your skill set, and that's what these different programs and credentials recognize, and that's what they give you is that confidence and that value of, I know what I'm doing, and I'm the prize. So, another thing that is going to help you say, I know what I'm doing, is what you get when you complete these courses. So, you get your official credential, and I know I mentioned earlier a lot of you probably know FMPs, and you don't even know that you know FMPs. So, one way that you know who an FMP is is you can add those letters at the end of your name. You can add it to your email signature. You can add it to your LinkedIn. You can put it on your business card. It's a way to show off what you have done, what you have accomplished, what you know, and what you have gained. We also offer digital badges. So, they are web-enabled, which means you click on them, and it'll lead you to something else. So, you can also include these just like the letters at the end of your name in your email signature on social media, and what that does is when you click on it, you know, someone might look at it and say, oh, FMP, he's an FMP. Great, and they might not know what that is. So, this is what it takes them shows what you have learned by becoming an FMP or an SFP. With those individual courses, you also get a digital badge along with all of those as well. So, even though those smaller courses are not a full-on credential, you still have that web-enabled digital badge to show what you learned. So, this is one of my favorite parts. We're over here telling you why these are all so great and why you should get them, and you want to know what's in it for you. And so, really, this, I think, is going to go out to all those people who are trying to progress in your current role. You want to increase your depth of knowledge. You want to increase your credibility. This is the way to do it. Credentials are really just going to, you know, professional development as a whole fills in knowledge gaps. So, it's going to give you that confidence and that credibility in what you do. So, the first one, you can read all of these, but the first one speaks to me just because I am very money motivated. I reward motivated, money being the best reward of all, I think. And so, if someone were to come to me and say, hey, here's this credential that you can get that will most likely lead to an increase in salary, I'm absolutely going to do it. Not guaranteeing this is not, you know, just a number that we have thrown out there either. This is from an actual research study that was done. You can read it down there at the bottom. So, there are also benefits for your employer. You guys can read through all of these as well. And so, if you manage a team or you manage multiple teams across multiple facilities across multiple countries, maybe, you know, PD and Credentials is really just going to bring everyone together. Everybody's speaking the same language. Everybody has the same expectations. And so, it really, really just increases employee performance and teamwork. Yeah, yeah. You know, the efficiencies of approaching a situation and finding a solution in a similar manner, this is not, our professional development is not just U.S. centric. It's not U.K. centric. We've brought it up to that global level so that if you've got people that are talking together and finding things that they need to improve upon and maybe there are some key performance indicators that you're tying to, a lot of times, too, facilities support the main balance scorecard that a company, an organization will set its goals. And to be able to articulate how what you're doing supports that when you're doing it collectively and cohesively, this will, again, just improve those efficiencies. So, you're going to save the organization money, but you'll also be able to show just a savings in how you approach things if you're doing certain maintenance and finding the efficiencies by coordinating all of that together. It will make a huge difference and employers recognize that and they see that because we've asked them that have, you know, credential holders, did you see a difference? And that's where, again, it is something that is from a survey and not something that IFMA is saying. So, oh, excuse me. I was going to say don't skip over that. I know, the good part. This is the best part. So, for attending, we wanted to leave you guys with a little bit of a gift. So, once you step away from this and decide which path is going to be best for you and which course you wanted to take, we do have these discount codes. So, you can use the top one to take $100 off either the FMP or SFP and then the bottom one will save you $50 off the Essentials course or any of those smaller individualized courses. So, I'm going to stay right here so you can write these down, keep them handy. Also, so I see a couple of questions which we'll get to in just a minute, but just a quick reminder if you guys want to drop something in the chat or you can submit a question, we will absolutely answer those here in just a minute too. Oh, actually that minute has arrived. So, let me see. I'm going leave just the screen right here so you guys have access to that. So, I see one question, what would be the best path for an office manager or a tenant in a multi-tenant building? I think that really is going to depend on what your day-to-day consists of and how in the weeds you are with what's happening. Maybe if you want to type a little bit more and give you a little bit of a better idea kind of what your day-to-day looks like and we can help guide you. I mean, I would say just based on experience, if you would consider your role to be FM adjacent, like we talked about earlier, that essentials course would be really good for you. If you are more involved in the day-to-day of facility management, maybe consider the FMP, but that one I would like to get a little more information on. I do see, let's see, I had another question, what facilities are available for candidates outside of the USA to do the CFM exam in this COVID environment? That is a great question. So, our CFM exam is proctored through Prometrix. So, you can, I will actually chat the link to their website because that will allow you to go on and search for locations near you. So, that's if you prefer the in-person. If you would rather do it remotely, they have launched a remote proctoring service. And so, what they'll do is lock down your browser so that they make sure you're not cheating and Googling answers, but you'll have to be on camera and they'll have you show the room. So, they do offer that option as well. So, I will, I'll get the URL and I'll drop it into the chat. Are there any other questions? I think I got the two with the hand raised. If anybody else has a question, go ahead, you can type it into the chat or if you raise your hand. Let's see. Okay, here's another one that came in. I'm currently working in the mailroom and have a strong interest in facility management. What certification would you recommend? So, that sounds like the perfect candidate for essentials. You think, Kim? I do. I do. That's going to give you a good overview of just what it takes. If you're interested in, and really depends on maybe some of the positions that you're seeing in your area and what the responsibilities are within those job descriptions, I would really urge you to take a look at that because you want to be able to set yourself up to succeed and to be able to show that you have the knowledge in order to make that move from the mailroom into more of that wide facility management. And so, look to see what is it that they're looking for because like we said, maybe you want to work your way, especially if this is something that you're having to pay for yourself, then you might want to take it module by module. Probably operations and maintenance would be the first one that I would recommend outside of essentials for you to take a look at because that is really, it's a great meaty standalone course and it is working your way toward earning that professional credential, which carries a lot of weight within this industry. So, I got a little bit more information from the question earlier about the multi-tenant buildings. So, this information says that they're more involved in the day-to-day and the contact for the landlord. I would, just knowing that information, knowing that you're more involved in the day-to-day operations, I would say the FMP would be a great place for you to start. I do too because you've got, the reason why we say you would need one to two years of just being in a facility to go after the FMP is because you need to be able to put some context to what you're reading that's going to help you be able to understand the material and answer the questions. All throughout each one of these courses, there are quizzes. So, it will let you know how are you doing and absorbing and retaining that knowledge because again, that's going to be something that you can apply toward situations that you're working at right now. And a lot of times, I've been with IFMA for 17 years, so I've had a chance to really talk a lot with facilities folks and the phrase that I hear a lot about is, I'm the accidental FM. They fell into this role and a lot of times, it is with an office manager's background. The thing that strikes me the most about this profession is the people who are in it are the ones that are willing to roll up their sleeves and get the work done. They're not worried. They're not saying, that's not my job. These become the go-to people that within an organization, they say, hey, you did a great job with this other issue. Can you fix this one? And that's where the role, that's why there's 11 core competencies for facility management. It's a big task and you have to know a lot about a lot. And so, that's why IFMA is here. We want to give you that. We have the professional development, but we also have the networking. Brittany had mentioned, you know, look for people that have these credentials. Talk with them and, you know, network. That's where membership is so key. You don't have to be a member to go through our professional development, to be a CFM, to have your FMP, SFP. It's not a requirement. We ask you to consider it because you'll be able to network and share best practices within that network and it is an invaluable resource to you as you go through and solve all of the unique situations that come up throughout every day in the life of an FM. So, that's actually a really good segue. Kim can't even see the questions that are coming in, but that's such a beautiful segue into the next question that I got. So, the next question is asking if there's any specialized courses for healthcare facilities other than the general ones which we have specified. So, I'm going to answer that and steer you towards our healthcare facilities councils. So, when you join IFMA, you also, you join either a chapter which is geographically bound or a council. There's also communities, but I'm going to focus on councils. So, councils are not geographically bound. So, it can have members from all over the world and it's going to be industry specific. So, if you are interested and you want to kind of brainstorm with other healthcare FMs that work in healthcare facilities, I would say that is a great route for you to go because that gives you access to exactly that, facility managers who work all over the world in healthcare facilities, same as you, and it allows you to connect with them about issues you may be facing, best practices, things of that nature. So, although we don't have a facility certification or anything specifically targeted towards healthcare facilities, we do have that networking benefit for you. And I would say, too, we are seeing things that might have been considered, you know, just for healthcare, and especially if you look at sanitation and cleanliness, that there was a certain level expected of a hospital or a doctor's office or a nursing home, right? That is now being applied to all facilities. So, a lot of the information, because we don't focus in on just one segment, can be applied. And to Brittany's point, the council looks for content and information that is specific within that industry that they share with their members. So, highly recommend just looking at it. If you go to IFMA.org under community, you can find information about chapters and councils and communities, and that will let you see their website. A lot of our chapters and communities and councils have their own website. So, there's a lot more information. You can take a deeper dive onto that. But if you have any additional questions or if you'd like for us to connect you with somebody within that council, just send us an email, and we'll be able to do that for you. So, this next question, I'm going to gracefully divert to Kim, because I'm actually not sure how to answer this one. This question says, does any of this training overlap with SIGMA 6 training? Yeah, SIGMA. It does not because ours is specific to facilities. There may be some concepts that you'll be able to see, or your knowledge in SIGMA may assist you in comprehension of what we're sharing within our programs. But it is separate. A lot of times we get asked if a project management certification is the same as our project management course. And the answer there too is no. The skills that you have, if you are, you know, if you have your PMP, it will help in the organization of running a project. But the project management course that IFMA offers is about how to run a facilities project. So, what it takes to complete projects in a facility, what you need to do, the different steps, who you would need to involve in the conversation, things that you need to watch out for, you know, how you contract with vendors, and statement of work, and getting signatures on any change requests, and really just protecting yourself and your team as you're going through, whether it's a renovation or a new build, or any kind of project where, you know, if it's a move, there are certain things that you need to be aware of and how to manage that. So, we dive into the facility side of it. But any certification that you bring into this profession is going to assist you. And at the very least, having that knowledge and going through that process will help you go through our process as well. We are ANSI accredited, which means that our learning objectives are solid. We have a third party that goes through and audits us, and let me tell you, they audit us, and they look at what we're doing, and it keeps the value of this credential that we have, the three credentials, to where it means something in the industry. And you can trust it and know that it's not IFMA, and we're not going to go off the deep end and not keep the information current. We have periodic updates. We really, our entire association, the purpose for it is to advance the profession. And we believe we do that not just with knowledge sharing, but by helping to advance individuals as well. And that's what our programs are meant to do. That's why we've geared them to where you can take them individually. And one size does not fit all. Everybody has a different challenge in front of them, and you may have the ability to take on the full FMP program, or you may just need a real estate course, because now you've got to deal with leasing contracts and agreements, and you have to get an understanding of what to do with that, and you need it right now. And that's what we're here for. We just got a question in, do you offer group trainings? I love this question, because this is my forte. So yes, we offer group trainings. We offer group discounts. We have a lot of different options, depending on if you have two employees you're looking to train, or if you have 2,200 employees. So I'm going to put my email in here, and then I'll reach out personally to the person that asked this question. But I'm going to put, actually let me put the email to our group. So this email that I'm putting out there goes, there's 12 different eyes that watch this email address. So if any of you have groups that you're looking to train, you want more information, you want to talk to somebody a little bit more in depth, specifically about what's best for your group and those options, reach out to this email, and we will have a conversation with you for sure. But yes, we do offer group trainings. Anything else? I think that was the last question to come in. I don't see any hands raised. So I would say, since we're resting on this slide, please write down IFMA June 100 if you're ready for your FMP or SFP. We've been talking about how quickly you could get these. I do want to reassure you that should you purchase the bundle FMP and SFP program, you will have two years of access. So you'll have two years to complete it. Our viewpoint is, why wait? Again, queen of procrastination. You're going to wait, and then you're never going to get started. Treat it as if you need to get this done in the next six months. Build your schedule around it. But life happens, and we understand that. So that's why there's two years to complete it. If it's the essentials of FM, because it's not as intense and in-depth as the other courses, you have six full months to complete that. The intent is, don't stop, don't wait. You've got access to it. Let's get started. And for the FMP, you can start on any one of those that you would like to do first. The price savings is, obviously, if you do the bundle, it's going to, over time, save you money than if you purchase one at a time. But whatever point you're at, whatever your needs are, we're here. We've got the June offer. We will be looking to do this type of webinar monthly, because we want you to have access to ask your questions, to be able to learn more, see more information. The email address that Brittany put on there will get immediate attention because our entire team receives that email. And so we make sure that you get a very timely response. And if you want us to reach out to you in six months as just a friendly reminder, let us know. We'll set a tickler in our notes to reach out to you, because it's so important to be informed and have the best knowledge possible. And that's what IFMA will provide for you. If we can get to the next slide real quickly, Brittany. So on this slide, it gives you very helpful links. The main website, of course, IFMA.org. The credential programs. One thing we didn't talk about is if you are looking to have your company support you and say, hey, this would be a great thing for me to achieve, here's why. We do have a convince your boss document that gives you some really helpful information. Brittany went through some of the things that we had in our presentation that's pulled from research. So if your boss or your company would like some hard data, that will give you that information. So I recommend that you visit and pull that. You can also find this in the FAQs when you're looking at the FMP under that professional development overview and just click on FMP. Frequently asked questions, you can find it there. And then that last link will take you to our course catalog. We have a new learning management system that's very easy to follow. You can search for certain topics and it will pull up the courses where that information is. Again, if you hit any roadblocks or if something's just not making sense, please reach out to CorporateConnections at IFMA.org and we'll be happy to assist. Absolutely. It looks like we have answered all of the questions. Again, we are recording this session so you can share it. I believe we'll be putting it up on LinkedIn so it can be accessed. But share it with everyone that you need to. If you miss something or want to revisit, feel free to reach out to us. And then if you think of anything, absolutely, I know how it goes. We shut down and turn it off and then something pops into your head. So if you have our contact information, feel free to reach out. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.