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Adam Bannister is a contributor to IFSEC Global, having been in the role of Editor from 2014 through to November 2019. Adam also had stints as a journalist at cybersecurity publication, The Daily Swig, and as Managing Editor at Dynamis Online Media Group.
August 28, 2015

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Widening Skills Gap is Pushing Up Costs for Security Firms, Warns Apprentice Scheme Founder

CSL DualCom says the scheme it launched four years ago to promote apprenticeships in the security industry has been a huge success.

Since its inception Apprentices for Fire & Security has placed more than 3,000 16 to 24 year olds into careers in the security sector in installation, engineering, IT, product design, marketing, sales and more.

Apprentices for Fire & Security was founded by Simon Banks, group managing director of CSL DualCom, in 2011 in a bid to bridge what he saw as an engineering skills gap in the security industry.

Security installation or integration businesses can enter their requirements in the Apprentices for Fire & Security website to be matched with potential candidates free of charge.

Simon Banks says doing so will not only provide firms with affordable, hungry young talent, but help the wider sector too.

“The widening skills gap is pushing up the salary costs for skills in our sector,” he said. “Eventually this cost will become untenable and will ultimately damage and restrict businesses.”

Inspired by the Government’s Trailblazer initiative, which has promoted apprenticeships throughout the UK economy, the initiative is also supported by Skills for Security, IFSEC International, the NSI and the SSAIB.

The initiative was reported in the national press in its inaugural year and prompted a roundtable debate at Westminster with then Skills Minister Matthew Hancock.

CSL DualCom has recently joined the industry’s Trailblazer Employer Group, which was set up to ensure employer-designed apprenticeship standards for training and assessment meet industry needs by 2017.

Building on its 100 in 100 apprentice drive – which aimed to place 100 apprentices in 100 days – the scheme also supports the Engineers of Tomorrow competition, which pits apprentices from UK security firms against one another in a competition to install security systems against the clock.

Earlier in the year IFSEC Global interviewed two of the contenders, one of whom triumphed in this year’s competition, which takes place annually at IFSEC International.

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