Training: who, what, and why?

[ptbeast]

Several years ago I owned a security training company. I am considering reopening it. I have a few issues that I would like to get peoples thoughts on.

My former company focused largely on training mandated by the state. That has gone in-house at most companies, so that market is pretty small now. That leaves optional, higher end training. CPR, First Aid, Tactical Awareness, Patrol Tactics, Etc.

The problem is that I have found that most security companies either do their training in-house, or are not willing to pay for training beyond what is required by the state.

So here are my questions:

Is it better to market these classes to the security companies or to the officers themselves?

If to the company, how do you convince them to spring for the extra training?

If to the S.O.s, how do you convince someone who is only making $10 per hour (about the average in my area) to part with their hard earned money for optional training?

Lastly, as managers or S.O.s, what kind of training would you like to see offered? What would you be willing to pay for? Why?

Lastly, would you rather come to our offices for training, or would you prefer that we come to you?

Any thoughts you have greatly appreciated. I am still in the brainstorming stage and any comments may spark my thinking.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

[BadBoynMD]

Several years ago I owned a security training company. I am considering reopening it. I have a few issues that I would like to get peoples thoughts on.

My former company focused largely on training mandated by the state. That has gone in-house at most companies, so that market is pretty small now. That leaves optional, higher end training. CPR, First Aid, Tactical Awareness, Patrol Tactics, Etc.

The problem is that I have found that most security companies either do their training in-house, or are not willing to pay for training beyond what is required by the state.

So here are my questions:

Is it better to market these classes to the security companies or to the officers themselves?

If to the company, how do you convince them to spring for the extra training?

If to the S.O.s, how do you convince someone who is only making $10 per hour (about the average in my area) to part with their hard earned money for optional training?

Lastly, as managers or S.O.s, what kind of training would you like to see offered? What would you be willing to pay for? Why?

Lastly, would you rather come to our offices for training, or would you prefer that we come to you?

Any thoughts you have greatly appreciated. I am still in the brainstorming stage and any comments may spark my thinking.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

Dave,

The first thing to consider is that, most security officers are responsible for their own gear. With that said, I'd suggest you focus on the officers themselves. However, you can still contact company management to offer your services. You may never know, they may post your training courses on the bulletin board for those interested. Any security officer with common sense would want various types of training, therefore trying to "convince" them won't be hard. Then, again you never know. It's kind of a "build it and they will come" type thing. As for myself, I am certification happy. If it's available more than likely I'll sign-up for it. However, another thing to keep in mind is that sense security officers will be fitting the bill, cost shouldn't be too steep.

Good training topics would be Officer Safety and Survival (OSS), offensive and defensive tactics, basic and advanced patrol techniques, crowd control, criminal law, civil law, domestic violence, OC chemical sprays, Expandable baton, firearms, building searches, patrol vehicle driving operations (EVOC basically) and etc..

As far as the training venue goes, it's more cost effective for you (overhead) to train at the companies location. That is if that company is a local company.

[HotelSecurity]

What some companies do here in Montreal is terrible & the fact that you post here on this forum I think shows that you would never do it but: There are companies in Montreal that advertise Security Guard training. To get people to take the course they practically guarantee a job at the end of the course. They do this by setting up a Security Agency then really underbid other companies to get really cheap contracts.

[Eric]

Are training costs deductable at tax time in your state / province?

Here in Ontario, classes of 100.00 and over can be included on your tax form. You may want to look into it, as a 95 dollar class may be easier to sell at 100!

[hrdickinson]

I would think CPR and First Aid Training could be sold to a huge market outside of security.

I think you're correct that it will be tough to get S.O.'s to part with their hard earned money for some of the high end training. I believe most security companies hire for a need and if their client doesn't request specialized training, they might hire your graduate a little quicker than an untrained person, but the sad truth is they probably wouldn't pay him/her any more than the untrained individual.

Perhaps a good target would be smaller subcontractors on Federal Government contracts.

Where is SecTrainer when we need him!

[SgtUSMC8541]

I own a small training company. My push is four fold for the security side.
1. The individual security officer
2. The security companies
3. In-house security
4. The security companies clients.

If you can convince the clients that their security staff would benefit from "additional" training then that is more than 1/2 the battle. They then call the security company and say "Hey, why don't you do this. (Your company) does this training, I think the security officers need it"

Next is how to support your security training..... I do CPR/First Aid re-certs for the local nurses and at the hospital.

I would look at the CPO program through the IFPO. I am an instructor for it and it has done some good in my area for both security companies as well as the individual officers.

[gcmc security part 2]

Around here the only training available is the D & G classes. Noone is offering anything beyond that, (ie advanced firearms, oc/baton/taser, weapons retention). Right now, myself and a couple guys from here are thinking of taking a couple days off and heading to Tampa to take some a couple classes at S2. We figure we can split gas and the cost of a room between us.

[Bern Wheaton]

Sometime it depends on you ,I was going to apply for a hotel job but found out I had to get a cdl.who knows why for security but I had to pay out of pocket and the heck if I was going to pay 4000 bucks for a 11 dollar job.

On post training is paid by the security company. The training I took for this new company was simple but we didnt get paid for it,it is like most companys here why pay the person applying for the job and pay for his training if he or she is not going to show up for it.

[HotelSecurity]

Sometime it depends on you ,I was going to apply for a hotel job but found out I had to get a cdl.

What does cdl mean?

[BadBoynMD]

What does cdl mean?

Commercial Driver's License?????? Maybe???? Huh??????

[HotelSecurity]

Commercial Driver's License?????? Maybe???? Huh??????

If it is that's a bad sign asking hotel security to have it. Sounds like they are going to have you drive people to the airport in the shuttle bus. Been there, done that!

[SecTrainer]

Several years ago I owned a security training company. I am considering reopening it. I have a few issues that I would like to get peoples thoughts on.

My former company focused largely on training mandated by the state. That has gone in-house at most companies, so that market is pretty small now. That leaves optional, higher end training. CPR, First Aid, Tactical Awareness, Patrol Tactics, Etc.

The problem is that I have found that most security companies either do their training in-house, or are not willing to pay for training beyond what is required by the state.

So here are my questions:

Is it better to market these classes to the security companies or to the officers themselves?

If to the company, how do you convince them to spring for the extra training?

If to the S.O.s, how do you convince someone who is only making $10 per hour (about the average in my area) to part with their hard earned money for optional training?

Lastly, as managers or S.O.s, what kind of training would you like to see offered? What would you be willing to pay for? Why?

Lastly, would you rather come to our offices for training, or would you prefer that we come to you?

Any thoughts you have greatly appreciated. I am still in the brainstorming stage and any comments may spark my thinking.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

Other than that you once taught state-mandated subjects, which are typically sub-basic, you don't mention what subjects you (and/or your staff) are qualified to teach, so it's very difficult to answer your question.

You also don't mention what kind of training facilities you have.

I'd also just mention that in some states "career training" schools are required to go through special registration/licensing and program approval, so you'd want to cover those bases if necessary and if that's what you plan to do.

However, "career training" isn't the whole story. Security companies and security officers are not the only market segments for security training, especially if you expand your thinking to the general area of "safety". You could develop courses (or seminars, more likely) to teach security and safety topics (or perhaps a series of them) to small business owners, apartment owners, condo associations, etc. Here are some examples:

a. Workplace Violence - Early Warning Signs and What to Do About It.

b. Preventing Fraud In Your Small Business.

c. Disaster-Proof Your Small Business.

d. Create a Fire Prevention and Evacuation Plan for Your Small Business.

e. Increase Your Apartment Complex Revenue By Improving Security.

f. How To Select A Security System (or Company) for High-Rise Apartments.

g. Hire Right: Background Checking for Small Businesses.

h. Employee Theft: What To Do About It.

i. You're the Security Manager For Your Small Business: What You Need to Know.

Two things about such topics:

a. There's tons of material already available on these topics to provide content.

b. Don't assume that you need to present "whiz-bang" or "unique" ideas in your seminars. Teach the basic principles. You might think that you will just be stating "the obvious" when you say, for instance: "The cleaning supplies used in offices have the potential to start fires if they are not stored properly in leak-proof containers." Or, if you say: "Many offices are not equipped with sufficient electrical outlets or circuits and are overloading them with all the new electronic equipment they are using. You should have an electrical inspection once a year, to be sure you're operating within the safe limits of your electrical system." Even though basic information like this is second nature to you, or might even seem like nothing more than "common sense", it is NOT second nature or "common sense" to many in the general public.

Seminars like these would contain about 2 hours of content (use rich multimedia, PowerPoint, etc., throw in "true-life" cautionary "horror stories", and keep things interesting), would be offered in the evening or afternoon with two breaks for free coffee/donuts, and, depending on how you market them, offered for free or maybe for $30-40. There would be handouts that people carry away with them.

Use the time-proven formula for seminars:

a. Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em (introduction).
b. Tell 'em. (presentation)
c. Tell 'em what you just told 'em. (recap)

There are a lot of ways to market and use "seminars" like these once you have developed them. For instance, you could market them directly to the small business/apartment owner, etc.

Or, you could market seminars (better still, "packages" of seminars) to security service and system vendors, PI agencies specializing in workplace investigations, etc. to aid them in their own marketing efforts. The vendor would then host the seminars, which or your staff would present.

BUT it must not be seen as a 2-hour "commercial" for the vendor. The seminar must be strictly informational. The vendor benefits by being associated with the seminar and having their name publicized, by generating sales leads, etc. No sales pitch should be made, nor is one necessary. In the handouts, there might be a tasteful tri-fold pamphlet describing the vendor's services (related to the seminar!), but nothing more.

Back-of-the-room sales would not be out of order in some cases. For instance, if you held a seminar on disaster preparedness for small business, it would actually be a great service to attendees if you offered disaster kits in different sizes that they could purchase before leaving. Of course, you would need to be sure you had a sales/tax license, etc. for your business if you did this.

If I were you, I'd explore some of the vast amount of literature that is available on how to develop interesting training programs, and the jillions of ways to market them. Also, pay attention to that "junk" email that sometimes crosses your desk from companies that offer training of any kind. You'll get some ideas there.

Good luck!