SIA Training

SIA Licences Suspended Over Alleged Training Malpractice

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:18:00 +0000

More than 200 licences have been suspended by the SIA following alleged malpractice at London-based training centre Tristar.
The licence holders all had Door Supervision qualifications from Leyton-based centre Tristar. A specified qualification must be passed before the SIA licence can be applied for.
Awarding body Edexcel withdrew the ‘Level 2 BTEC Award in Door Supervision’ certificates issued by Tristar, and removed it as an accredited centre.
Because their qualifications have been withdrawn, 211 licence holders no longer meet SIA licensing criteria, which states that a specified qualification must be passed. The SIA has therefore suspended these licences.
The suspensions will be reviewed in 90 days and if the individuals do not have a valid qualification by this time their licence will be revoked. Any person found to have been complicit in malpractice will have their licence revoked.
Director of Strategy and Corporate Services Hazel Russell said:
“We take allegations of training malpractice very seriously, and in this case have taken prompt action to suspend licences after receiving information from Edexcel.
The training is an essential part of the licensing process, ensuring that all those working in the security industry are properly equipped to carry out their role. Reassuringly, we have relatively few reports of misconduct, and we work closely with the awarding bodies to ascertain that licence-linked qualifications meet the necessary standards.”
An Edexcel spokesperson said:
“Edexcel takes any abuse of our qualifications very seriously. We received allegations of malpractice within Tristar and carried out a thorough investigation, including forensic analysis of test papers. We found substantiated evidence of malpractice and consequently we withdrew over 200 Level 2 BTEC Awards in Door Supervision and removed the centre’s accreditation.
BTECs are rigorous qualifications and we will always take action, where necessary, to protect their value.”

Security Training Courses

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:57:00 +0000

There has been some recent changes made to the SIA Training Courses, make sure that you are kept current with these changes. The training is now modular training and physical intervention training is now mandatory for all door supervisors.

Malpractice in the training arena

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:24:00 +0000

By the end of May 2007, over 340,000 SIAspecified qualifications had been awarded. There are 34 individually accredited qualifications given by seven awarding bodies who oversee thousands of training and assessment centres. Inevitably, then, there is a risk of training malpractice and some individual qualifications being fraudulently obtained. That applies to all qualifications in all industries and all situations. What matters most is how widespread this is, and how effectively the problem is addressed. Ensuring the validity of qualifications is the responsibility of the awarding bodies and the qualifications regulatory authorities. They have the processes, resources and skills to do so. They also have quality control measures in place to prevent malpractice. This includes training centre approval visits, assessment inspections, monitoring activities, statistical analysis of results and risk assessments. This process is audited by the qualifications regulatory authorities. While not our responsibility, we are acutely aware that any doubt about an SIA licence holder’s qualification damages our reputation and the perceived value of the licence itself. The awarding bodies fully understand this and, not surprisingly, are most keen to protect their own reputations. The SIA enjoys an excellent relationship with
the qualifications regulatory authorities, the awarding bodies and Skills for Security in addressing this shared problem. We routinely exchange information to ensure that alleged
malpractice is investigated and, where necessary, dealt with and prevented. To that end, we meet on a regular basis in order to assess and manage this threat. Not all allegations or perceptions of malpractice are well-founded, however. Sometimes, for instance, there are
misunderstandings about legitimate full or partial exemptions. Although we encourage people who harbour concerns to raise them with the awarding bodies, sometimes they target us directly instead. Of the 49 malpractice allegations raised with us over the past year, six (in other words 12%) were found to be substantiated. We know that the awarding bodies have received about 100 allegations, of which just under 30% were substantiated. Training centre approval has
been withdrawn or suspended in nine cases, while investigations or corrective action is being undertaken in many others. Our current view on the matter is that training or assessment malpractice is no more prevalent in the security industry than in other situations and, where it can be identified and substantiated, it is then addressed robustly.

Continued Professional Development

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:12:00 +0000

The SIA specifies that six out of seven licensable sectors of the private security industry
must meet core competency criteria in order to get an SIA licence. These sectors are Door
supervisors (both in-house and supplied under contract), Vehicle immobilisers on private
land (both in-house and supplied under contract), Security guards supplied under contract,
Close protection operatives supplied under contract, Cash and valuables in transit
operatives supplied under contract, and CCTV (public space surveillance) operatives
supplied under contract. There is no competency requirement for key holding. This is
because the Private Security Industry Act 2001 defines key holding solely as holding keys
and does not include activities relating to a security response.
We are about to approach the first cycle of qualification extension with the regulatory
authorities for qualifications1 for the Door Supervisor sector. Extension of accreditation
ensures that licence applicants are still able to register for and complete the qualification
and therefore demonstrate competency for licensing purposes. All licence linked sector
qualifications will require extension of accreditation over the next few years.
The first cycle of extension of accreditation is an appropriate opportunity for the SIA to
consider our competency renewal strategy as a whole. Specifically, whether the SIA core
competency specifications, underpinning the qualifications, are still ‘fit for purpose’ for each
licensable sector and how we should maintain these standards in the short to long term.
We have considered the progression and changes made across the industry since the
SIA’s inception; we have also considered input from our stakeholders involved in the
strategic development and delivery of the qualifications.

SIA Approved Training

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Ever since the advent of the SIA we have all gone mad in the search of an approved training centre.
The facts remain there are minimum standards to be met in order to attain the approval. That not withstanding the standard of training is what is most important. Good training is assessed on the level of interaction of learners and the trainer/teacher and not necessarily on the price of the course. We have good teaching practise as well as bad, and I hasten to say many are taking short cuts.

There are a lot of training providers offering cheap courses, how on earth they survive I do not know. It cost quite a lot of money to run a course and teachers do not come cheap. I believe that best practise coupled with good training equals a good training centre. It is important that we do not compromise quality over price.