What needs to happen 1!

Kia Ora,

I began writing these blogs to express my frustrations with the security industry in NZ.

But I  think I should outline what needs to happen to bring the industry up to a standard that is acceptable.

First is the training. Currently there is no requirement for any training & under the proosed changes there will still be no real requirement for real training. Most of what will be carried will be orientation, but called training.

At the other end of the training in place at present is the NZQA courses which spend months training people but since the people doing the training are not using practical training as part of the process people are qualifying but actually know nothing about the industry or how to apply it.

As I have said to people doing the courses. I won't employ you unless I know you & you are up to a minimum standard, where as I will employ ex military people on the spot if a position is available, even though their training is not recognized in the industry. Despite being the highest level of security.

The proposed training suggested in the new bill is 12 to 18 hours. Again it will be the first two shifts of orientation will be counted as training. No training in relevant law to that position as in say a hospital.

For the base training it should be a three week basic course of mainly hands on (or in military terms BHL -battle handling lessons followed by BHE's -battle handling exercises) training. Then they can have follow up training courses tailored to their specific requirements.

There used to be a course here in Christchurch run mainly on these lines but which had to fufil the funding requirements of four months for initial course & certain other requriements that had nothing to do with the industry. People that attended these courses initially had a hard time finding work as the standards were too high for the industry. What work they did get showed them to be better trained than those without any training or coming from other courses without the practical element.

Now it is even worse where you can do the course by correspondence.

Not to mention the training establishments that sign up people who cannot work in the industry generally due to criminal background. So they give them false hope, sign them up to a student loan & then at the end of it they get nothing. All it has done is give the provider extra funding.

During submissions on the new bill regarding security personnel, I was astounded to hear a training provider classify NZ training as world class. The British consultant who has made a documentary is more on the button with his description as worse than West Africa. That is where you hand a 10 year old a weapon & tell him he is security or a soldier.

What needs to be put in place as stated is a three week hands on course which is then followed up by add on courses. I.E. a two to four day recognized holds course.

One this produces more income for the government so keeps them happy & two the financial drain is not so great on those attending the course.

It also means that carried out professionally the government is not handing out funding for people to do courses in an industry they can't work in.

All in all there needs to be a huge change in culture in NZ in regards to security & within the industry.