Winner
Tavcom Training
As one of the UK’s most established independent security training providers, Tavcom Training had – until recently – heard an ever-recurring plea from its students… "Why isn’t there a raft of standardised vocational qualifications in the security systems sector acceptable to employers in the UK and abroad, and regulated by an authoritative, independent body?"
With this in mind, Mike Tennent – Tavcom’s director of training – met with Edexcel, whose BTEC courses are offered in over 300 training centres worldwide. Thorough scrutiny by Edexcel has allowed Tavcom to offer such courses to installers, operators and managers alike. To September, Tavcom had welcomed no less than 175 students through the doors of its Hampshire hq.
Runners-Up
The Oracle
At The Oracle – a 22-acre shopping and leisure centre in the heart of Reading – the public safety team comprises 30 staff including controllers and CCTV operators monitoring over 150 cameras. Members of the team operate on a rotational shift basis round-the-clock, 365 days per year. Each member of the team has to undertake a comprehensive training programme that encompasses fire prevention, control and restraint, first aid, lift entrapment and customer service skills.
Group 4 Total Security
Group 4 Total Security operates a five-day Initial Training Course for officers, allowing for the practical application of skills and covering customer care in far greater detail than would be possible over three days of Basic Job Training. Day Four of the course is badged as the ‘Day of Excellence’, where the trainee officer is seconded to site and trained by experienced staff.
Gardiner Technology
Gardiner Technology has long recognised the need for building closer relationships with customers, one aspect of which entails the promotion of bespoke training packages. To this end the company has successfully introduced a series of CCTV-based training courses – over 1,000 installation companies have taken up these courses since 1998 – which encompass cameras and lenses, transmission, switching and control systems, multiplexes and fault-finding and – last but by no means least – lighting for CCTV systems and fibre optic transmission techniques.
