There’s always a nugget or two of essential detail to be found in the concurrent seminar theatre presentations, and this year proved no exception. An excellent session on the 2012 Olympic Games, for example, saw David Evans (the BSIA’s Olympics project director), LOCOG’s Andrew Amery and Tariq Ghaffur (the Metropolitan Police Service’s assistant commissioner) highlight all the major security issues.
The session that really grabbed the attention of practising managers, though, was presented by Dr Mike Hosking – principal lecturer at the University of Portsmouth’s Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering. In The Security Management Theatre, Hosking unveiled details of a bespoke – and rather unique – BSc (Honours) degree course in security technology to be launched this October.
Covering such areas as ‘smart’ access control, intruder detection, biometrics, encryption, ‘intelligent’ CCTV and secure communications, the three-year course – with an optional sandwich year – is believed to be the first of its kind (in so far as there has never been a basic training course for security practitioners that encompasses the wider remit of all technologies used in the sector on a regular basis).
According to Hosking and fellow lecturer Dr Djamel Azzi, there will be an extensive project-based learning module in Year One and a full-time ‘solo’ project for the final semester.
This course is groundbreaking for several reasons. First, it ticks the right boxes for budding professionals who’ll need to wrestle with additional systems post-SIA licensing.
Second, the course is going to be very much ‘hands on’. Delegates will be made aware of how to use systems, what the limitations of those systems might be and how they coalesce with other solutions and the human presence.
On top of that, Hosking and Azzi have unearthed the ‘magic formula’ of project-based learning. The skills borne of such tuition are craved by today’s employers. A winning formula, then, that will deliver highly-skilled professionals.
