A review of SITO, the training organisation for the secure environment.
SITO, the training organisation for the secure environment, was ten years old on October 26, 2000. It is in the process of investing more than £3million in multi-media developments, and has ambitions to grow and take training packages abroad – and to deliver training in the most up to date ways possible, namely on line and by CD-ROM. In a robust defence of SITO’s record, Ray Clarke pointed to a solid financial base and achievement both within the security industry and compared with other UK training organisations. SITO is a huges success story, not appreciated by the industry, he argued. Income generated from overseas makes up about ten per cent of SITO income, he told Professional Security at the Worcester headquarters. (The office has an ADT alarm panel on the front of the building and overt CCTV covering the car park and Chubb fire extinguishers inside, for those interested in what security bodies do by way of their own security).<br><br>
Fast-growing
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In a review of the 1990s, Ray Clarke argued that SITO was the fastest-growing of the UK’s 75 national training organisations (NTOs), responsible for various sectors of the economy.SITO is one of 11 NTOs placed by the Department for Education in category A of healthiness, the highest of four categories. With 35 staff, SITO is the seventh largest NTO in the UK, compared with the average of 11 – and a starting staff of four in 1990. The organisation struggles to do its job with 35 and ‘we take the view in ten years’ time there is no reason why we can’t double in size,’ Ray Clarke said. According to a SITO survey, 93 per cent of those asked in the security industry have heard of the body – which is not the same as saying the security industry knows what SITO is doing, but it compares very well with how well other industries’ training organisations are known.
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In sound shape
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Ray Clarke poured scorn on industry rumours saying either that the organisation has £1million in the bank, or that the organisation is broke. It has a turnover of £2.7million a year and £270,000 in its profit-loss account. It chose to be a not for profit organisation,
rather than relying on membership fees or public funds, which cannot be guaranteed, particularly over the medium to long term. SITOdoes not get involved in training delivery; Ray Clarke gave the example of the WISE (Women Into Security Employment) whereby SITO was able to pump £140,000 of free training for security company staff. Before 1990, you could not get a national training qualification in the security industry, SITO argue; things have changed significantly since. With a few gaps, training is available from the most basic for guard newcomers to the highest – a Masters degree. SITO has issued some 165,000 nationally-recognised qualifications over its first ten years: most are at entry level, besides some 47,000 successful City and Guilds exam-based qualifications, and 6,000 NVQ completions. The organisation admits that NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) are not met with universal acclaim in the security industry, but argues that it is a success story compared with other UK industrial sectors. Just over 20,000 people are registered to take security NVQs, and the course takes 18 months to two years. Ray Clarke made the claim that SITO has revolutionised the guarding side of training, so that today there are some 1,200 trainers in the security industry, what Ray Clarke called a ‘wonderful infrastructure’. He added that in 1990 he went to Group 4 with a view to SITO accrediting that guarding firm’s training, and got the response that perhaps Group 4 ought to rather accredit SITO’s.
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Asia and elsewhere
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SITO has worked extensively in Asia rather than Europe, seeing Asian educational systems as more used to working with UK institutions, and Asian security managers, particularly English-speakers, valuing the UK more. SITO offers training in native languages such as Thai, Khmer, Cantonese and Hindi. The organisation’s approach to the Asian market is to modify the training material so that it applies to the local conditions – such as the law of the land. There is the exciting prospect of on-line learning in Asian languages being delivered in four or five years, Ray Clarke said. He championed Business Excellence as a tool that big names such as Group 4 use to measure business practices with a view to constant improvement in managing staff and resources, satisfying customers and staff, dealing with environmental issues, and financial and non-financial results.
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And so to the future
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How the government hands out cash for adult education is about to change. The Further Education Funding Council and Training and Enterprise Councils are to be replaced by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), with a £5.5billion budget for education and training. SITO is out to get as much of that money as it can for the security industry – and employers will be able to bid for that cash too, which could mean a shake-up of colleges up and down the country, Ray Clarke predicted. The security industry needs better statistics about itself, to justify itself before the LSC – SITO taking a step by commissioning a labour market report by Warwick Business School; yet even the official census categories do not take into account changes in the economy, whereby security has become much more important in the last generation. In April SITO plans to publish Skills Foresight, and a Workfoprce Development Plan by September 2001, to show what skills the security industry workforce needs, and how those skills can be taught. Ray Clarke argued that SITO needs to move beyond minimum standards, and has to improve end user awareness. SITO has just produced a tender template, so that if you the end user are buying in security training, you know what to expect if your contract guards are to become qualified. End users see the cost of training as the biggest stumbling block, SITO admits, and access and lower costs – maybe thanks to more use of technology such as PCs – are necessary. SITO views itself as the Private Security Industry Association’s technical committee on training if and when the government brings in legislation to set up such an association to regulate the industry. That committee would be one of several beneath the proposed PSIA management council regulating the security industry.
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The future – on line
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SITO aims to deliver training on line, so that test papers and assessment is almost real-time rather than in the post. There is the prospect of trainee installers – either in a training building or on a PC at home – wiring together a virtual security system on-line, with the on-screen system going wrong if the trainee makes a mistake with his virtual screwdriver. Learning would thus be more intractive. It is possible that employers could dial up a secure database to see how far job candidates had progressed with their training – to give interviewees reliable vetting. You can find out more about SITO on their website.
