Beware of backlogs due to the take-up of exams for Security Industry Authority licences.
The National Open College Network (NOCN) and its partner the Security Industry Training Organisation (SITO) report what they describe as a huge surge in examination activity as a result of the SIA new competency requirements.
SITO Managing Director, Stefan Hay, says: "The security industry is now responding and making a significant investment in training and qualifications. Since January 2005 more than four hundred examination centres have been approved and around four thousand trainers have been qualified or approved to deliver the new training programmes. We are now sending out more than five thousand exam papers per week, and receive the equivalent back. A further surge in activity is anticipated following the impending launch of the new SIA compliant CCTV Operator training package, which supports the QCA accredited NOCN Level 2 CCTV operator qualification that will go live in September."
OCN Director, John Sanders, said: "We recognise the tremendous importance of these qualifications in the licensing process and are totally committed to working with industry to constantly improve efficiency. We have achieved a significant improvement in turnaround times with most papers marked, uploaded and the results issued to companies within the specified ten working days. Where the papers are not subject to query, we have achieved a five day turnaround for clarification."
SITO Support Services Manager, Louise Lowe, has recruited an additional 15 people dedicated solely to processing exam papers and has engaged a team of professional examination markers. She says: "NOCN are moving from weekly to daily certification runs and the impact of this improvement should soon become very apparent. We also intend to run a number of centre workshops to assist industry from September onwards and uptake so far has been encouraging."
Potential problems
However companies should be aware of the potential backlog problems. Louise adds: "A number of companies do not return their exam papers immediately after the exam has been sat by the candidate. In some cases we receive three monthsโ of papers in one week and naturally this will cause delays. Also we take internal moderation and quality assurance very seriously and if we are not happy with the validity of a batch, we will place it on hold and investigate further.โ For queries, ring SITO on 01905 20004.
