One thing you must consider is the amount of people working and not working in the industry. The SIA (the UK’s regulatory body) indicates that over 11,000 people currently hold a valid Close Protection Licence (SIA licensing statistics), which far outweighs the amount of jobs available. It is commonly said within the industry that the market is saturated and some even go as far as to say that now , is the worst time to join the industry. Having said that, there are still plenty of people joining the industry daily and finding work so is it as bad as some would say?! Well yes and no. The market is saturated at the moment, that is almost a given, but what makes people successful in this industry is what they offer in terms of skills and background experience. Close Protection is not something that you can just walk into. Ideally you need a relevant background in security such as years working as a security guard, police officer or military. Without this previous experience then you will no doubt find it very hard to find work. Of course having said that, there are exceptions to this rule, but they are exceptions nonetheless. As mentioned Close Protection is considered the top tier of front-line security services and is something that should be progressed into, not jumped straight into to earn a quick buck, because quite simply, you won’t. So consider what sort of background you have. Are you experienced in security operations,ex military or law enforcement? Have you spent considerable time working in a security related environment is basically what most companies will be looking for. The harsh reality is that the security industry can be very discriminatory and the whole “on the job training” thing does not work when people’s lives are potentially at risk. No client wants a fresh out of training with no previous security experience CPO looking after them or their family, and if most of us think about it, we’d probably think the same. And without mention the SIA Licence (read Mr. Michael Cormac Post) that has no validity outside the UK borders.
Another topic will be: the Hostile Environment(HE) and Non Hostile Environment(NHE).The fact that a lot of private security agencies claim that their Close Protection service is high goes to a small question:not how or is it true but ..WHERE?! Pay attention to this fact ,if that security agency has a training session for CPO ,inform about the future contract that the agency has...why? because the Close Protection in a NHE it is not a close protection is BODYGUARD SERVICE.
So if you have a related background then you’re off to a good start. Another point to note on this is that if you’re thinking of working in a HE then you really need to have a good solid military or armed police background. This is for 2 reasons. 1. As mentioned the industry is flooded with guys looking for work, predominately ex military guys, which is only growing due to the recent cut’s to the Armed Forces. These people have extensive firearms experience in a Hostile Environment or at least trained to that standard. Because of this the security companies operating in areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa really do have the pick of the crop. They can afford to set the standard high, and they do. The second reason is that no 2 week firearms course in the world will teach you enough to enable you to handle a firearm in that kind of scenario,at least 6 months of high military training will get you to the basic standard of a CPO. Yes you will be able to learn some very good drills and it will all look smooth and slick, but handling a weapon on a day to day basis requires you to think of that firearm as an extension of your body. Your drills need to be second nature which takes months and months if not years of drilling, and is something that a 2 week course will simply not do for you. Having said that, there are again exceptions to the rule, but these are exceptions and are very few and very far between. So now that you have a very basic understanding of what the job can entail it’s time to think about training. But before we go and look at that and you are living in UK, you need to check your eligibility. This is something that crops up time and time again. People do a course and then, after spending thousands on training, realise that they’re not in fact eligible for a Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence. This is something which amazes me constantly, because as I have described , you need to be switched on at all times to work in this industry. You need to be able to conduct your own research into routes, venues etc., etc. yet some people don’t even think to check their eligibility, which is madness when you consider that the SIA have a criminality checker on their website. I cannot stress enough for people who have been arrested.
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