Exclusive: The gold standard of accredited security training

Rhiannon Limbert, Marketing Coordinator at Linx International explains how accredited training can progress a security professional’s career.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we look at the world, with fundamental shifts in the way we interact socially and in our workspaces. People are asking questions of themselves such as ‘What do I actually want?’ and ‘Is it too late to make a career change?’ as they navigate an unexpected world of furlough or redundancy. 

As a global training provider, we speak with learners every day who are faced with these difficulties, who are fearful of returning to the classroom, who are anxious of where to go in their careers and are uncertain of how to get there. It doesn’t help that there are very few industries that change as rapidly as security and it is paramount that contemporary security professionals keep abreast of core developments in the field, through the vehicle of continued professional development and knowledge gain. Today’s employers are increasingly seeking the ‘Gold Standard’ from potential employees and candidates for internal job promotions. This Gold Standard is comprised of Experience, Qualification and Professional Membership.

There are many pathways available for those seeking the ‘Gold Standard’, but accredited training remains the most popular as it stands as a mark of quality for the training that businesses have already put in place. But what benefits does this mark of quality really bring?

Quality assurance

Accredited training provides a benchmark for competency within that specific sector or role. Accredited training must – due to its very nature – follow regulations, standards and frameworks associated with the topics.

To ensure the continuing credibility of qualifications, learners must have confidence in the quality of the awards and the underpinning assessment process delivered by security training providers. To safeguard this, centres must go through External Verification (EV’ing) to ensure that the course administration, delivery and quality assurance systems are satisfactory in all approved centres. External Verification is designed to provide confidence and credibility in the assessment and final certification of learners’ results by ensuring that centres are all assessing candidates in line with national standards.

Security training delivered by qualified security training providers is more comprehensive, covers subject areas more fully and is verified for quality and assurance at regular intervals, giving the learner full confidence in the centre’s proficiency.

Improved workforce skills

By taking an accredited course with a qualified and experienced security training provider, not only are learners more invested and engaged (there’s a ‘reward’ to be earned at the end), but they are gifted a thorough grounding on the topic with a good understanding of how this can then be applied to their roles. At the end of the course, not only will they have a better comprehension of the topic but they will have improved their working knowledge and workforce skills, which in turn benefits their organisation. What’s more, through essay and report writing, learners are developing their soft skills, which will continue to benefit them throughout their working life. 

Personal commitment to development

With the security sector thriving and becoming more competitive as the benefits of a career within the sector becoming wider known, the importance of demonstrating commitment to learning has never been stronger.

By committing to ongoing learning, through experience, continual professional development and in some cases formalised learning in accreditation, the security professional in today’s landscape shows that they understand how important their role is and the impact it has on the organisation they represent.

Improved career pathway

It’s no secret that in an ever-competitive market employers are favouring formal accreditations above non-accredited; it’s a mark of a person’s professionalism and knowledge. But over the years, learners have leveraged their formal qualifications to gain entrance into the world of professional security management and to scale upward into enhanced job roles within their organisations. Having a clearly mapped out career pathway benchmarked by formal accreditation provides a clear visual route for the individual’s journey, thereby opening more doors to success. Good training providers will already have this pathway mapped out prior to course commencement, so will be capable of advising on the necessary steps a learner will need to take in order to reach their goal.

It goes without saying that these are just a handful of reasons why accredited training providers remain just as important as ever. In a post-pandemic world, the job sector has experienced a seismic shift in the way we work and the way we train. Where once face-to-face classroom training was the preferred, even epitomised delivery method, technological advances in videoconferencing has opened up a wealth of global training options previously inaccessible to many. With a wealth of accredited training now available at a person’s fingertips, competition within the security job sector has become as tight as ever.

But accredited training not only benefits the individual; it brings with it a wealth of positives for the department and organisation that the person belongs (where applicable). As well as being an investment for the organisation itself, accredited training is increasingly viewed as a prerequisite to success. Training helps with staff retention, recognises employees’ career goals and interests and importantly increases their skill-set.

Of course, various types of accredited security training bring about key sector-specific benefits, but it is also possible to distinguish some more general positive consistencies, for example adding accreditation to in-house training benefits the overall image and efficiency of an organisation. As companies grow, often diversifying into sub-groups and departments in the process, first-class training becomes a vital component of an organisation’s consistency towards working standards and practices.

www.linxinternationalgroup.com

This article was originally published in the July 2021 edition of International Security Journal. Pick up your FREE copy on the link here