Skills for Security expands

SKILLS FOR SECURITY

SfS continues expansion

David Scott of Skills for Security details how the national training provider is continuing its expansion plans with a new centre in North London

Iremember reading an article in 2013 after qualifying as a fire and security engineer and leaving the tools to progress into education about the growing concerns around competency and skills. Since then very little has happened, in fact, the concerns have only worsened. With an estimated Skills Crisis of over 30,000 engineers required to ensure fire and security providers can continue to meet customer demand. Quite a startling figure when you realise there are only 1,500 apprentices in the whole of the UK, meaning it would take approximately 25 years to actually meet that demand and by that time the problem is only going to be much much worse, which the Government have confirmed estimating engineering sectors will see a further skills shortage of around 250,000 by 2025. The solution is simple, isn’t it, we need more employers to recruit more apprentices. Sounds simple in theory, but in practice, it’s not or hasn’t been. Apprenticeships often have face to face element of teaching which can range from 1 day a week, to 40 days per year depending on the provider, the burden of which always lands on the employer to take on that cost to ensure apprentices attend the face-to-face delivery, with only a handful of employers in the UK the travel costs alone can reach the thousands of pounds. When I first took over at Skills for Security, we had one centre for delivery, in a village in Knutsford. It was a beautiful village but had terrible links to public transport and was not easy to get to from the motorway, so didn’t make an ideal locale for training. With around 100 apprentices enrolled at the time, we watched over 80% of our learners travel from Birmingham and the South to get to Knutsford for training, some even putting in over 6-hour round trips from Norwich to attend. With the absence of local training providers, the number one barrier for employers recruiting apprentices was cost, not hiring costs, not day-today employee costs but training costs. For those travelling 6 hours to get to the centre, the costs were in the thousands for each training block.

In 2019, Skills for Security set in motion a new accessible model where we would remove barriers to apprentices and employers being able to access apprenticeship training. We have worked with industry partners, raised investment and worked tirelessly to make that goal a reality. In only three years we now have 7 sites across the UK with almost 15,000 sqft of training space in Glasgow, Southport, Mansfield, Oxford Warrington and now our Flagship site opening this month in Watford. This is in line with our mission to be THE leading national provider of fire and security training, bringing accessible apprenticeship training closer to where employers and apprentices need it. In the last three years, we have seen the number of apprentices enrolled on the fire emergency and security systems (FESS) apprenticeship programme quadruple, with an additional 200+ apprentices qualifying to become fully qualified fire and security engineers.

The new site in Watford has the capacity to service over 600 new apprentices to the sector, with employers already reserved to start in September we are already on our way to seeing the first 100 apprentices enrol and start training at the new centre. The centre is state of the art and has the best training facilities in the sector, with 13 workshop bays used to create a realistic work environment for the apprentices to learn the hands-on elements of the sector.

There is a long way to go before we can eradicate the skills shortage, but with a model that brings apprenticeship training to employers’ doorstep, and a team that believes in high-quality apprenticeship training we have an opportunity to grow the apprentices in the UK from 1,500 to over 10,000. Imagine that, eradicating the skills shortage in as little as 3 years instead of the projected 25 years.

YOUR SKILLS QUESTIONS ANSWERED

As part of this column you can ask David questions directly about training and apprenticeships. We will aim, to publish the question and answer in the next column. If you want to participate in this, then email info@skillsforsecurity.org.uk

We are planning to take on an apprentice, how do I recruit?

We have a team of account managers that will talk you through the process and even help you advertise on the government apprenticeship webpages or arrange for you to get a trainee to take on a work placement as part of our try before you hire.

We already have an apprentice, how do I sign them up?

We enrol all year round to minimize barriers to entry, our enrolment process is fully digital and online with only a few forms to complete. Just get in touch with the email above and we will get back to you the same day. www.skills4security.com

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