Frantisek Havelec
Frank moved to England in 2004 from the Czech Republic, where he ran his own small restaurant business, and enrolled for an NVQ Level 1 in Cleaning in October the following year, shortly after joining the Royal West Sussex NHS Trust as a member of the night cleaning team. According to his nominator, Joanne Hauffe, he was “determined to complete the qualification so he could be of real value to the domestic team” and he also took an English course at the local college.
Within a year of completing his NVQ, Frank was regularly acting as the team leader of seven staff during a shift, and in August 2007 he was promoted to domestic supervisor. He soon began his NVQ Level 2 in Cleaning and passed his Level 1 Literacy Test. Frank is currently undertaking an NVQ Level 3 Management Programme, whilst also funding himself through a Higher National Certificate in Business and Management at his local FE College.
Frank is clear-minded in his ambition to become the “first facilities manager within the NHS from the Czech Republic” and is mapping his training and education to allow him to achieve this goal within the next five years. “All [of these] achievements, I could only manage with the aid of British society and I am very grateful for all [these] opportunities which have been given to me”, he says. “I would like in future [to] pay it back and share my experience with others who need support as I did”.