The Lull before the Storm?

If you have made a new years resolution to upgrade your career prospects this year and have noticed that there are several Federally funded workplace qualifications on offer - which include Security and Private Investigations, let me provide you with an update on the former and some words of caution on the latter.

The Productivity Placement Programme or PPP scheme is operating in a number of disciplines for those registered with Centrelink and a job service agency such as Mission Australia, Epic Employment or Sarina Russo. I have the qualifications to train people looking to qualify in Security - Certificate II, and Private Investigations, which is a Certificate III level course. I can train several others as well, however, these are the only PPP funded courses I can currently offer. Unfortunately for some, the PPP places have been exhausted - FOR THE MOMENT - here in Maryborough, but there will be more available very shortly, once we impress on the government the popularity of the courses.

I train the Security courses from my office and training room in Maryborough, Qld, and over the past four years I guess I have assisted upwards of 400 people to gain employment in this ever expanding industry. In the main the course attendees have been attentive and worthy of qualification if not full time employment, although there have been many horror stories too. I alluded to a literacy and numeracy dificiency in a lot of the adult students coming to me and I often reflect with concern at how they are slipping through the system in seemingly such large numbers. Perhaps I am only seeing a proportion that think Security does nothing in the way of computer based work, or need's little report writing skill or ancillary communication skills. If that sounds like you, read on.

Increasingly the Security industry is being called on to report incidents that end in Court and the standards there are extremely high. My last security job was a multi function role requiring intra day reporting of people and incidents, interviews, operation of complex CCTV and Alarm systems backed up by a fairly rigourous legislative understanding. Now that's fine for someone like myself who has attended hundreds of court cases - juries and stern faced judges, and worse - smarmy overpriced defenced counsel do not phase me - however, for someone who has only seen them on television it can be a very, very daunting proposition.

There was also the very real demand to communicate at a high level with some very intelligent, and then some not so, emotionally unstable people, some intent on self harming to the point of suicide.

My Security role prior to that was on a large Industrial site and the work proved to be 90% administrative, 10% Security, demanding a skill set that I did not possess. A lot of flying by the seat of my pants, and flying blind, to use a couple of appropriate aviation metaphor's, was required to get through the day. At times I was actually spinning in circles in one spot answering phones, dealing with staff at the office window, conversing with staff on the in house radio channel, checking data on the computer because a contractor had activated a no entry alarm, in the middle of conducting safety inductions while trying to avoid copius numbers of boxes and equipment that I had just received and was required to check at a point in the day when the spinning had stopped. Multi tasking like nothing I had seen before and it was extremely demanding. So please if you think Security is a job where you sit around watching TV, you are in for a rather large shock. That said, Security at the moment is booming and can take you in a diversity of directions that were unheard of even 5 years ago, and not just in the manner I have just described.

The current crop of trainee's - whom I lauded in my previous blog, all seem interested in the Crowd Control aspect of Security work, I can't fault them for that but I do warn that after weeks of physically restraining and dealing with drunk and drug affected patrons, they will not sound quite so enthusiastic. Certainly, my days of dealing with trouble makers who have had too much to drink are over and I now prefer to advise others on what to expect and how to deal with it in a manner that will ensure they retain their dignity, their job and their health.

The PI Industry is another of the PPP funded schemes that I train from my DRM GROUP training facility. However, at the moment the industry is experiencing it's quietest entry to a new year I can recall. Many of the other PI's I am in touch with are concerned at the low level of work on offer at the moment, some have left for other more lucrative work and others - nearly all - are having to consider returning to paid employment of the traditional kind, that is the sort we all became self employed PI's to get away from. So if you are considering entering this industry I urge you to call me on (07) 41230795 or copy this link and make contact through my website at http//www.drmgroup.com.au.

Although fascinating and challenging, there is also a very real rquirement to purchase a range of equipment you probably had no idea would be needed to gain work. I am also afraid that having the ability to work out the formulaic thinking of television's crime show writer's fall's someway short of the real ability to spot an inconsistency or potential loophole in the story of an Insurance claimant for instance. Mind you the surveillance side of the business is a completely different one to the interview of claimants and provides a completely different, yet equally difficult challenge. I'm not sure anyone actually masters surveillance, but you certainly learn fast and it is endlessly exciting...outside of the hours of sitting in cars waiting for something to happen that is. But then that is a huge challenge in itself and is not something everyone can do.

I hope the current lull in PI work recedes as quickly as it hit us, but for the moment consider your move carefully. If you are thinking of entering either industry feel free to give me a call or use the link to my website listed above and send me an e-mail. I offer free, no obligation advice, without preference for suppliers of any related services.

I am passionate about improving the image, profile and standards of my industry and therefore if I can help you to become a better Officer or Investigator that's a win win, right? Right!

Think Long and Prosper
Dan