Skills for Security: search training 'a success'

07 Feb 10

Skills for Security has run its first course for trainers on the topic of security search operations. As Brian Sims reports, it has been well received.

By Brian Sims

Security search operations for illegal or prohibited items should be an essential part of any company’s security strategy.

Future high profile international sporting events and the current requirement for vigilance to help protect against acts of terrorism – alongside the frequency with which people are now trying to take knives and drugs into entertainment venues – pinpoints the need for quality-assured security search training such that innocent members of the public are protected.

In November last year, Skills for Security accredited a unique security search operations training programme developed by Status Training. The programme is designed to equip trainers to teach security staff essential searching skills.

Initial course for trainers

The first course for trainers was held in The Sorensen Centre at Skills for Security’s Worcester hq from 26-29 January, and received an extremely positive response.

Peter Smith – the chief executive of Status Training and former head of a National Police Training School who developed the programme – commented: “The knowledge and procedures that learned throughout this course have a wide variety of uses attached to them, from finding and identifying improvised explosive devices hidden in a commercial environment through to uncovering prohibited substances on a person trying to enter a nightclub.”

Smith added: “This interactive learning programme teaches correct methods of searching people, bags, vehicles and buildings. The delegates have found the course to be extremely enjoyable, and companies are already experiencing benefits from the training that has been concluded.”

The four-day course introduces trainers to the threat to public safety from terrorism, and the role that systematic security search procedures can play in countering this threat. Delegates learn through classroom teaching and realistic search exercises, culminating in practical assessments and a multiple choice examination.

Comments from course participants

Brian Willans, the trainer for Carlisle Security, commented: “I enjoyed the course and found the content extremely beneficial. I also learned from the experience of other trainers on the course.”

Neil Cash, the training director at LDC, added: “This is an excellent course delivered by very knowledgeable tutors. I particularly enjoyed the group interaction.”