Wednesday 4 January 2012

What to do after security training


SIA training and licensing procedure
In the united kingdom if intend to work in certain areas of security industry you would be required to get a license from the regulatory authority which is the security industry authority abriviated as SIA. There are different sectors which are licencsed, the same are listed below
  • Door supervision
  • Security guarding
  • CCTV Pss
  • Close Protection
  • Key holding
  • Cash and valuables in transit
  • Vehicle immoblization

Before you apply to sia for the above mentioned licence or licenses you shall be required to undergo a training. You can choose us as your training provider or you may decide to choose from numerous other training providers. The training providers do not certify you, infact they are accrediated by different awarding bodies e.g edxcell, highfielf HABC, city and guilds, edi, nocn etc. The training provider shall be responsible to provide you training as per the SIA and awarding body guidelines and shall test you on the testing material provided by the concerned awarding body.

After you have been tested your paper work will be sent to the awarding body for proccesing, usually it takes around 10 working days once you shall be notified of your results by your training provider. If you have qualified that is the point where you can apply to SIA for your specific licencse you can apply for a single or multiple licenses at the same time, the benifit for applying for multiple licenses is more because that is how you would be able to save money and you would possibly get a job quicly.

Once you have been notified about your result or have been given the certificate that is the point where you can apply to SIA for your specific licencse. You can apply either by going on line to the SIA website or you can simply call them ask for a paper application form to be sent to your postal address.

Normally SIA will take upto 20 days depending upon individual circumstances to decide upon your application. 

TIPS
  • Read the how to fill SIA application form very carefully
  • Write in black ink
  • No cuttings, overwritting, erasing etc
  • See the person who has attested your information his details are correctly entred
  • Ensure that your passport size photo graph meets SIA standards
  • Check have you entred your payment details

Once SIA makes a decission on your application you shall be notified if you are sucessfull or otherwise. If sucessfull you shall be granted a licence or licenses in your desired sectors for which you have undergone the essential required training. If there are certain observations that the regulatory body has you shall be asked to rectify them and you will be given a fair chance.
If you have been successfull now you can start looking for work. You have to be smart inorder to look for work , this is a sperate topic which shall be elaborated upon subsequently.



Hunting for a security job


Security job hunting after training
You had made up your mind to change your career or start a new career and venture into the highly rewarding security industry, where there is always demand for new entrants and as the situation is developing around the globe it can be assumed the demand shall remain there for all the reasons as increase in crime and disorder is directly proportional to increase in security which is again directly proportional to increase in the number security operatives.
Making the right choice for security qualifications
It is important to know that you should make the right choice as regards to a particular security training and ultimate certification and licencse. As you may be aware that there are quite a number of activities that are licensed by the security regulator. Out of them by enlarge the most common are Security guarding, door supervision and cctv, even amongst these three the door supervision plus cctv pss combination remains to be the most opted for qualifications, Reasons are obvious a door supervisor although works at a licencsed premesis but he can perform all tasks that a normal security guard can do and at the end of it the licensing cost of the door supervisor course and security guarding course is only merely Gbp 20, so it makes perfect sense to opt for door supervision rather than the security guarding qualification.
Your unique selling point USP
No one is perfect, dont portray your self as perfect. Identify your strenghts and weaknesses and try to highlight on your strenghts in a way which does not show that you are overinflating as regards to what you are. Besides your personal strenghts and weaknesses your qualifications can help you, imagine a scenario where you are infront of an employer for a job interview say for door supervision, you have the door supervisor qualification and the door supervisor license aswell but so do thousands of others, what makes you different from the rest of the crowd. Try to understand what the recruiter wants and give that to him, if you give him options he would think, say for instance if you are a person with the door supervisor and a cctv Pss as well as emergency first aid qualifications, the recruiter will obviously give you prefrence on so many others who do not have multiple qualifications, so that will be your unique selling point.  
Your security resume or cv
And last but not the least your CV or resume for that security job. We shall delebrate on this account in detail at 1 ave security article base. However never be stereotype in your approach, meaning that one size does not fit all. Try to understand the advertised job requirements and then try to amend your CV for that particular job rather than having one CV and sending to multiple recruiters.