by jbs012210 i3 — January 25, 2010—Founded in 2004, ABRAFAC, the Brazilian Association of Facilities, celebrated its 5th anniversary recently. The association now represents more than 450 members from across Brazil. ABRAFAC has worked to raise the profile of both those working in the field and the FM profession as a whole.
The formal concept of facilities management began to be used in Brazil around the middle of the 1990s, although informal support groups formed in the 1980s. The profession is now well established within large organizations and continues to evolve and gain status, yet FM still remains to be totally understood by local Brazilian organizations, says ABRAFAC.
Today’s FMs are tasked with working within the additional framework of the organization’s wider environmental and social objectives and are therefore involved in corporate sustainability in its widest sense, notes ABRAFAC. FM in Brazil is now spreading beyond the corporate environment and gaining space within the field of residential management. Property developers now advertise the specialist management of shared services in their developments as a commercial differential.
ABRAFAC says the outlook today is full of promise, for both existing professionals looking to further their knowledge base, and those who wish to enter the growing field and obtain proper training. Formal qualifications for FM range from a variety of introductory operational/vocational courses promoted and supported by ABRAFAC, to a formal MBA at POLI/USP (one of Brazil’s most respected universities), now in its 7th year.
