Debate: How Should the Industry Improve Certification/Training Standards?

With graduates thinking seriously about their next step it seemed an opportune moment to canvas views on the state of training and certification within the security industry.

Given that the Security Training and SIA Report 2014 has become our most successful download ever, we could hardly pick a more resonant subject for our audience.

“Gone are the days when ex-military and ex-police can automatically land the best jobs,” according to one industry veteran interviewed by IFSEC Global.com.

As the IT and security worlds converge a rather more eclectic skill set is now required for the modern security professional and the industry has certainly become more professionalised.

But are certification standards and training infrastructure evolving to keep pace with this change? And is the industry doing enough to attract the brightest talents as they emerge from university?

The association chairman: Michael White, director, Hampton Consultancy Ltd and chairman, International Professional Security Association

The security industry is still fragmented. We have multiple trade associations/professional bodies, a licensing regime that doesn’t appear to be moving on and no single body responsible for developing professional standards.

Yes we have National Occupational Standards and yes we have British Standards and the Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS), but these are still voluntary in terms of industry compliance and full government funding for training extends only to level 2 courses, the most basic level.

Hardly an investment in the future of an industry securing multiple billions of pounds of critical national infrastructure.

So let’s consider setting ACS compliance standards at meaningful levels, let’s make compliance with British Standards mandatory and let’s lobby the government to incentivise those companies that train and develop staff beyond tick-box levels.

Will this add costs to hard-pressed company budgets? Probably, but arguably, in failing to invest in a skilled, motivated workforce we’re tacitly participating in allowing other industries, who perhaps do understand the importance of training and development, to offer more attractive careers and personal development.

Surely it’s better to spend the training budget on up-skilling current staff rather than basic training for replacement staff. And retaining individuals and reducing staff turnover will not only professionalise our industry but also potentially reduce HR and recruitment costs.

The university lecturer: James Willison, vice chair, ASIS European Convergence/ESRM Committee; associate director of training, Griffin Security Solutions; associate senior lecturer, Loughborough University’s Post Graduate Security Management Programme

To improve something, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is ‘to make it better and increase its value’. Perhaps we can admit that security certifications need improving?

So how do we do this? When you compare security with other subjects it is relatively new and not studied by many university students.

Our colleagues in cyber security have recently focused the media’s attention on the lack of qualified professionals to combat the growing threat of cyber crime. The government has responded with increased funding for research and training initiatives.

Can we learn from this? We have seen a fall in traditional crime figures but this may in fact be due to the criminals’ change in operations.

Cyber crime is the issue which really concerns businesses and it is rising. However, you could argue that many qualifications in this field focus mainly on technical and IT issues.

The student also needs to study business, law, health and safety and criminology alongside HR and business continuity/resilience. In this way he or she will have an understanding of how security risk impacts the organisation.

Some Universities offer this kind of general course, which includes a strong mixture of traditional and cyber security. I believe that more of the larger security companies, be they in manned guarding or vendors and corporate, should sponsor senior and middle managers to study for an MSc or Higher (level 7) Certificate in Security Management.

The access control executive: Adam Stroud, CEO, Paxton Group

As demand for access control and diversification of security systems grow, so does the importance of industry training.

Training is key, and not just on the technical side. It is also important to develop the installer’s commercial awareness and give them the tools to generate demand and move their business forward.

Combined with knowledge of intelligent and innovative products, this gives installers differentiation when quoting to their customer, who will always choose the company that offers the best product at the best value. With the correct training installers can differentiate themselves by providing better solutions at no considerable extra cost.

A demand also exists among non-security professionals who use access control as part of their daily lives. With the appropriate training, systems become simple to use and can be managed with ease.

Training and support should be succinct, free and accessible in a variety of mediums, making it readily available and easy to attend, whether in person or online.

So far in 2014 we have trained 1,156 people from 433 companies free of charge – ensuring installers are confident and well positioned to offer scalable security solutions.

The security recruitment expert: Brett Ennals, CEO, Cento, incorporating fireandsecurityjobs.com

Beyond basic SIA training there aren’t really accepted industry training programmes that are regulated or driven by a set standard.

Improving those standards, I think, should be market-driven by customers who specify their minimum requirements for various roles.

If customers stipulated that they only want security officers who are qualified to certain levels beyond the SIA minimum level, it would drive the industry to support standardised training and independent qualifications that everyone would have to implement.

The installer: Ric Martin, technical manager, Sensory Secure (Ric was interviewed by IFSEC Global about his life as an installer)

I think the industry is quite good on training and certification. Most manufacturers have free courses for their equipment and the main distributors offer training for more generic things like networking and cameras.

For the more advanced systems, such as Milestone Pro, an installer must be certified to purchase and install the equipment, which I think is a good idea and can also set an installer apart from the crowd.

One problem within the industry is that engineers don’t always get the opportunity to work or train on certain equipment. This can be down to either the company not using the equipment or pigeon holing an engineer into a specific role – something I hear all too often.

I don’t think this is done maliciously, but it definitely slows down, or even stops, an engineer’s career progression.

To improve access to training a manufacturer could run more webinars, which seem to becoming more and more popular. Webinars enable an engineer or system designer to do training with minimal impact on time.

To ease pressure on their time further still these webinars could be held outside normal working hours, or at least first thing in the morning or last thing in the afternoon.

The cyber security expert: Sarb Sembhi, director, STORM Guidance

One in five IT security professionals say their enterprises have been the target of an advanced persistent threat (APT) yet 62% of organisations have not increased security training in 2014, according to the ISACA 2014 APT Survey.

A separate study by Cisco estimates that close to one million positions for security professionals remain unfilled. These indicators of a massive talent shortage are compounded by a skills gap, with few cyber security programmes emphasising business strategy and communication in addition to technology. To help address this growing worldwide skills crisis, global IT association ISACA has launched the Cybersecurity Nexus (CSX).

Developed in collaboration with leading international chief information security officers and cyber-security experts CSX fills an unmet need for a single, central location where security professionals can find cyber-security research, guidance, certificates and certifications, education, mentoring and community. All CSX materials are designed to provide security-related information within the larger business context.

CSX is the only programme of its kind offering a clear career path from a few years’ experience in security to being a senior security manager of a global organisation. Upcoming elements in the Cybersecurity Nexus program include a mentoring program, a practitioner-level cyber-security certification, SCADA guidance, training courses, implementation guidance related to the US cyber-security framework developed by NIST and teaching materials for professors.

The view from across the Atlantic: Todd Morris, CEO and founder, BrickHouse Security

The ESA [Electronic Security Association] classes in the US have a lot of good content but are a bit out of date. The online courses are also very out of date using outdated technology.

There is no reason at this point in time that the ESA should have to reinvent the wheel and build their own online training platform.

There are now many great training platforms that can support video of the best trainers and real-life situations as well as verify the test taker with photos during the class taken by the PC camera.

A more modern updated system would be accepted by more states and drive more revenue for the ESA to pay for the updates.

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