Greater Skills for Security

Given that the security business sector is now a growing and progressively more essential environment, companies are in desperate need of good employees. They want the right people, at the right time and with the right skills for the job. This represents a major challenge in an increasingly regulated and knowledge-intensive industry, where frequent re-training and skills upgrading is required. It would be fair to say that many businesses – particularly those classed as small-to-medium in scale – find it difficult to fund formal employee development.

Businesses are facing an equally difficult challenge in formulating the management skills required to develop and maintain a competitive concern. Indeed, many organisations are struggling to compete as a result of the inability of their people to promote the quality of their goods and services. A number of Government-backed studies have shown that many smaller and medium-sized businesses often have poorly developed skills in marketing, finance, Human Resources planning, technology and strategic planning – all areas that are critical to business success.

The main responsibility for employee skills development lies not necessarily with the individuals themselves, but with the employer. However, even larger businesses seldom invest the time or the resources to conduct extensive research into current and future skills needs, or to develop appropriate training initiatives based on that research. Reactive development tends to be the norm, with the majority of investment finding its way into the ‘must have’ basic training.

Businesses within an identified sector or industry, however, have found that they can overcome these limitations by working together – to identify and address their common needs while also establishing closer ties to training and educational institutions. This is an area where Skills for Security can now play a valuable central role in facilitating this partnership-driven environment.

Skills for Security: the key objectives

Our vision is to be acknowledged by employers as the skills advisor for the security business sector by responding to current and future skills needs, and assisting the sector in raising the effectiveness of its performance. In order for this vision to become reality, we will work with employers to develop training and qualification systems that are relevant to industry needs, improve skills, raise performance and that are accessible to all.

This may sound fairly straightforward, but actually – and understandably – we face a fairly formidable task. To ensure that we remain on track, we have set ourselves a number of key, manageable objectives. These are to:

• research, identify and understand the current and future skills needs of employers to ensure a thriving and expanding industry;
• work with employers, learning institutions and other stakeholders on improving the skills of the people in the sector;
• influence Government policy in relation to education and skills;
• encourage the use of training to help improve productivity and business performance across the sector;
• identify and reduce skills gaps and shortages, working with employers at all times;
• increase opportunities to boost the skills and productivity of people in the sector, and thereby increase personal opportunities for promotion and advancement;
• improve learning opportunities with a relevant Sector Qualification Strategy that outlines educational paths ranging from apprenticeships right through to higher education opportunities;
• assist the security business sector in sourcing sufficient number of skilled people for its current – and, vitally, its future – needs;
• operate and sustain Skills for Security as a dynamic, responsive and influential organisation in the industry.

Our vision is to be acknowledged by employers as the skills advisor for the security business sector by responding to current and future skills needs, and assisting the sector in raising the effectiveness of its performance

In practical terms, these objectives mean that we will be focusing our attention on inspiring people, while at the same time maintaining a balance between the requirements of individuals already working in the sector and potential employees who may wish to join at some point in the future.

The Skills for Security Transition Team is currently working with employers to develop the next generation of vocational qualifications for the existing workforce, but this work also provides an opportunity to address the Government’s 14-19-year-old agenda. There is clear evidence that apprenticeships are, once again, becoming very popular with employers. In its final year, SITO saw a vastly improved uptake of apprenticeships in the systems sub-sector. Nationally, across all industry sectors, a record 176,000 apprentices started in the academic year 2004-2005.

Clearly, a new momentum is developing as those individuals who decide not to take the academic route realise they can ‘earn and learn’ while retaining the possibility of going on to higher education via a vocational pathway.

We intend to build upon this revival by encouraging younger people to join the sector as a first career choice. There is an urgent necessity for more school leavers to have access to high quality training and qualifications, particularly with clear vocational outcomes. Skills for Security is now bringing together all the major stakeholders to find a remedy to the problems that have evolved over the past 20 to 25 years. Those problems have culminated in inadequate training or no training at all, resulting in disenchanted young people who have reinforced a poor image for careers in most industry sectors – including, unfortunately, our own.

Business leaders of tomorrow

Of equal importance to Skills for Security is the need to dispel the myth that the security business sector can continue to ‘home grow’ its future ‘leaders’ and have them rise unbidden and untrained from the ranks. Despite evidence from both the Office of National Statistics and research, in abundance, from the EU and US that demonstrates our GDP per worker in the UK falls way below most of our international competitors, there remains a marked reluctance within the UK in general – and specifically within the security business sector – to offer management training and coaching, or even to formally define the kind of professional and personal qualities that strong managers need to exhibit.

We have already been inundated with communications from hundreds of employers, training providers, Higher Education establishments and other stakeholders that want to work with us. Suddenly, 2006 is looking like being an exciting year for our industry.