Out Side The Box

If I was to ask any security professional this one question, what do you feel would be his or her response?

“Do you feel the training you received for the current security position was sufficient?”

As a trainer I have asked this question to many of my students over the last 10 years and have received many varied responses. Some of the comments have been good while were quite disheartening. Having been a trainer for a large company in the Metro DC area working on a government contract, new hire and in service training was rather regimented with the need to follow the lesson plan and schedule. Occasionally we would add to and enhance what was required. With a staff of three other trainers we brought to the training programs different backgrounds and experiences. It was when we followed the lesson plan to the word that we seemed to get bad critiques.

I am a firm believer that in adult education you need to incorporate hands on training along with lecture. As we get older we find it harder to sit and listen to the same lectures over and over. Bringing in some hands on training, something as simple as making the student look up a section of the penal code, doing handcuffing practicals, escort formations are some examples. Trainers need to remember that the mind can only input as much as the bottom can withstand. So with this in mind, lets get our students up and doing something. While new hire or entry level training does require a lot of lecture type teaching, nothing says that in-service needs to also.

One of the main components of the training I provide is lots of hands on. Not only do they learn how to do something, but they do it. It does no one any good to see a power point presentation on conducting counter-surveillance, we need to get them into the street and practice what we have taught them, reinforce our teaching points. I even do this with investigator classes; have them bring their lap tops to the classroom, have them Google the student next to them, make them follow along as you perform a criminal background check on line using one of the free databases.

An instructor I know in Virginia stressed to us fledging private investigators many years ago that the only way to learn was to do. Martha is one of those instructors who, when in front of a class, gains the respect and admiration of the students. She is not like many instructors out there, this lady not only can talk the talk., and she can walk the walk Having been a working private investigator, one of the guiding lights behind the Commonwealth of Virginia having some of the most stringent training requirements in the private security industry, this one is worth her weight in gold.

Thanks Martha!

So to all the instructors and trainers out there…..Go beyond the lesson plan, think outside the box. Get your students involved in their education. Make them not only think but do!