Australia’s first house keeping college opens

By Jessica Donaldson

Does your partner clean the kitchen bench with a dirty cloth, leave mould around the door of the shower, or turn all your ‘whites’ into ‘pinks’? If so, it might be time to enroll him at house keeping college, so that he can get his government-approved Certificate in Domestic Cleaning.

Yes, it really does exist, and it’s just opened in Brisbane in conjunction with the Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment.

Local government agencies and large domestic cleaning businesses are welcoming the new qualification, saying it sets a benchmark in an industry that has been without regulations, and is often tarnished by a general lack of professionalism.

The house keeping college is run by Joy Vess, who also runs her own domestic cleaning company, and has 20 years industry experience. Vess says while there are already official qualifications available within the commercial cleaning industry, there was no such thing for domestic cleaners.

Vess adds, “You find people are letting cleaners into their house who might not actually know how to treat stainless steel or use the cleaning products now on the market. Cleaning is not as easy as people think.”

The thirteen-week course includes theory exercises and practical workshops, and ends in a final hands-on exam. Course modules include basic cleaning, handling chemicals, ‘green’ cleaning, and laundry management. Students also learn about health and safety, sales, and customer service.

Over 100 students have enrolled for the course since it started earlier this year, and there are plans to roll the course out across the country. The first round of students has graduated already and the majority have found employment in cleaning companies, or have decided to open their own.

And in our aging population, the need for domestic cleaners is growing rapidly, so it’s set to become a highly lucrative industry for those that are providing a quality service to their customers.