Educate yourself before going to school

Get Educated before you attend their EP Schools

By Eric Konohia Corporate Beard™ FrontRightSeat™ EP Mastermind Group™ BPISecurity.com

STOP

What you should know before you make your decision on an Executive Protection School

The Learning CURVE ball The purpose of this paper is to address the fallacies and mistaken expectations of an Executive Protection School or Academy. There are far more schools today than ever in the short history of the CRAFT.

A service provider MUST live up to, and deliver as advertised in their contract or the relationship is over. An EP school on the other hand can be difficult to prove otherwise. This is where the crux of the problem exists – What is advertised in attracting the students in the seats.

1.

Schools are in an internal battle with themselves to fill seats in order to stay in business. Schools are unlike service providers because a relationship with a student [their client] is a short-lived experience in many cases, whereas serious service providers are in constant motion to maintain their relationship with their clients for an extended period of time. Each contractual engagement is actually the gateway to the next.

In many cases with schools, once a student receives their certificate, the business relationship is over.

There is a small level of relationship that is fostered so that each student is a reference point for their friends to come to the same school, but for the most part, that is it.

You will learn all you ever need to know about executive protection in this school.

This is the largest fallacy in the education and training platform. No school will ever be able to teach you all that you will need to know about EP in the amount of time they set forth in their courses.. Three, Five, Seven, Ten and even Thirty day courses are ONLY a gateway into the CRAFT. The real training comes from doing the job. In fact, we have noticed a trend of three [3] day “Courses” popping up. This is a lure to a low price point and shorter commitment of your time. Schools have become smarter to the fact that YOU do not have an endless bankroll nor a bottomless pit of time at your disposal.

2.

You will graduate and begin working in the industry.

Although we have seen a change in this, there are still schools out there that are NOT service providers in conjunction with being a training provider. In those cases it is a false sense to fill the seat in the course with the promise of immediate work after graduation. As a student you have to realize that these same schools have graduated specialists months and years before you that have gained real experience in the industry before your first day in class. To think that you will walk from graduation to a formation is absolutely insane. There are a few exceptions to the rule but that number is far too small to measure.

There are a small number of schools that still train their own people to work for their company, but good luck cracking that code.

3.

Schools are like cars, they have periods when the production comes up short.

If you look at the car industry and see the competitive nature. You can easily see that some years Ford was at the top of the mountain and then for the next cycle of time Chevrolet was the best. And then there are the Deloreans, that come and go like a flash in the pan.

Nothing about them is appealing to the eye but the oddity stands alone as something attractive.

Some schools are Ford tuff and others are lemons. Do your research and talk to those that have attended the school and ask the right questions.

4.

The cadre Buffet

It amazes me that when people come into this industry they will readily invest into a name of a school but pay little to no attention at who and what they will be teaching. Does it not make sense that you should make sure that the instructors :  Know what they are teaching  Have actually performed in the CRAFT  Actually wrote or participated in developing the module they are instructing [VERY IMPORTANT] Slight of hand A common TRICK of the schools are to use trainers to fill slots in their training modules.

Too often these part-time instructors are asked to teach a module that was written by the academy and NOT by the specific instructor teaching it. HUGE MISTAKE.

Training modules are built to emphasize critical learning points of the module and if a part-time instructor free-lances over a module developed by and for a specific instructor, the importance could be lost in its delivery.

BYOM [Bring your own module] Too often to alleviate the aforementioned fill-in instructor, the school will ask the instructor to bring his/her own developed module for the specific period of instruction. Here is the problem. This pre-developed module may not be consistent with the school’s overall point of view and perspective.

Enter the Warrior There is a push to have PSD operators who are fresh from the Sandbox to deliver course modules. This is a very smart marketing tool for EP schools considering the LUST for everyone to have that experience, whether live or Memorex. I truly believe the PSD operators have value in the RIGHT course. The problem can occur when their perspective can be slightly skewed from their recent environmental exposure. I am not making a broad stroke of the brush on all of these operators but you should be mindful of this marketing tactic to lure you in.

Leper for life

Choices you make have a long lasting effect on how you move successfully in life. That also stands true for the EP school you attend. Wrong choice on an EP school can ruin and even damage your movement through the industry.

Another reason to make a wise decision.

Be a wise investor

No one can tell you how to spend your money nor should you allow marketing bling put you in a trance without educating yourself before you go to school. Make sure that you are getting real Executive Protection training and not a knock off.

The fact of the matter is that ALL real and pertinent training will come after you walk out the door through experience. That fifty cent piece of paper that says, “Competed” means nothing if you can’t put it to work.