From January 1, 2015, new Security Industry Authority (SIA) courses and qualifications will be introduced for SIA licence applicants. As a regular five-yearly review of the course content it represents tweakings rather than great changes.
The regulator says that new courses will ensure that training content remains relevant, with up to date content, but without over-burdening the individual or the industry. The courses will allow some online learning. The SIA says that the new training courses have been designed in association with the security industry, and were supported by a public consultation earlier this year and small working groups of experts, such as employers and trainers.
The sectors to be covered by the new courses are: Door Supervision, Security Guarding, Public Space Surveillance (CCTV), Close Protection, Cash and Valuables in Transit, and Vehicle Immobilisation (which covers Northern Ireland only since the Coalition Government dropped wheel-clamping badging in England and Wales).
Door supervision training will contain more content in managing queues and crowds and dealing with vulnerable people, such as young women who might be at risk if drunk and ejected by door staff from a pub or club. There will also be an expansion of the physical intervention content, as well as a focus on more practical delivery of searching and conflict management content.
The security guarding course will contain more content on patrolling and maintaining contact, and how to deal with commonly encountered incidents. There will also be a requirement for practical delivery of searching and conflict management, and (on the advice of police) the inclusion of an awareness of crime reduction initiatives.
The qualification awarding bodies have developed new training courses to meet the updated specifications, and they are now working with training providers to ensure standard training packages will be ready for January 2015.
Tony Holyland, SIA Development and Technical Manager, spoke on the changes at the Highfield awarding body (HABC) conference for trainers at Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground, Manchester, on November 13. More in the December and January print issues of Professional Security magazine. As questions from the floor showed, physical intervention – for door staff and security officers – remains a subject of disagreement between trainers and the regulator.
Tony Holyland said of the training changes in general: “It is important that the licence-linked qualifications are meaningful to the industry and learners, so we are pleased to have been able to involve the industry in the redevelopment of the qualifications. There is a lot of continuity with the previous qualifications, but some significant changes to the content and also the way the qualifications can be delivered.”
The SIA adds that it will publish the new training specifications on their website in December, when they replace existing specifications. The training and qualifications will apply to new SIA licence applicants.
