Leading manned guarding company First Security has achieved Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) status for CCTV from the Security Industry Authority (SIA) and its CCTV Training Centre has received Skills for Security and National Open College Network (NOCN) approval.
One of the few training centres in the country to be officially accredited, First Security's training centre at Caledonia House will offer four-day courses in CCTV system operation and monitoring, in line with new legislation on Public Space Surveillance CCTV licensing.
Steve Townson, Senior Training Manager at First Security, explains: "Since 20th March 2006, under the Private Security Act (2001) and the Approved Contractor Scheme, any security contractor's employees operating a CCTV surveillance system in a public space have been required to be licensed. In view of these new rules, I have been running CCTV training to ensure that 100% of our own staff are licensed and, as a result we have now achieved the Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) status for CCTV."
"This legislation has led to an increased demand for CCTV training across the industry and the Skills for Security and the NOCN approval of our training centre mean that we are now able to provide the approved courses to any third party contracted to provide CCTV operations. We can also manage the whole SIA CCTV licensing process for individuals or groups. This is a rare offering for the industry and a fantastic new business opportunity for First Security."
To create an authentic practice environment for all trainees, one of the training rooms at Caledonia House has been fitted with a fully operational CCTV Control room, linked to the main First Security office in Myddelton Square, London. First Security is planning to market this offering to the industry in the latter part of 2007.
Approved CCTV training is just one of the external training packages offered by First Security. In addition, the training team is qualified to deliver licensed training on Basic Job Training, Manned and Retail Guarding, Conflict Management, MAYBO Conflict Management (CM), MAYBO Physical Intervention (PI) and Holding skills and Door Supervision training, plus a plethora of non-licensed training ranging from Mail Room protocols to IED (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) threat management, Threat Call handling, Vehicle and Personnel searching and bespoke Customer service training.
The training team also has the capability and expertise to conduct on-site operational assessments of all security processes, systems and people with a view to implementing an operational improvement plan including identification of desired training interventions.
"This is a bespoke assessment and solutions design, tailored to site specific customer needs aimed at enhancing operational effectiveness and is being extremely well received by our own customer base," concludes Steve.
