14.08.2024

Security expert urges Government and Industry to take real action in addressing technical skills shortage

Government support that goes beyond lip service and translates into real action is needed to accelerate meaningful apprenticeships to address the shortage of skilled engineers in the security industry.

And while the challenge of finding and training future talent can in part be addressed by money, there is also more work to be done in promoting security as a career opportunity with formalised promotions and career paths, especially for those transitioning from military to civilian life.

The warnings, from Brendan McGarrity, Director of Evolution Risk & Design, and a Fellow of The Security Institute (FSyl), comes against a backdrop of an ongoing struggle to recruit, train and retain new talent into the industry, despite various initiatives set up for the purpose.

“Various schemes have been launched, and initiatives announced, including Skills for Security, part of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA),” McGarrity explains. “It’s a worthy entity, with a committed team, but the training is too protracted, visibility and awareness is poor, and it’s not delivering anything like the volume of new talent the industry requires.”

McGarrity says the initiative is also too broad in its remit: “While it speaks about ‘tomorrow’s engineers today’, its courses include physical security and business administration, none of which help address the shortages that our end of the security industry faces.

“That’s not to dismiss the initiative altogether,” he adds. “It’s more to say that it is not truly focused on engineers, which is where the real skills shortage lies. It also tends to target new entrants, rather than upskilling those with existing talents, such as electricians.”

McGarrity, a former RAF serviceman, also believes that when it comes to jobs in civilian life, the Armed Forces Covenant is yet to achieve its full potential: “I have argued previously that an RAF technician who can repair a radar system while out in the field can be quickly and easily trained to install high-end integrated security technologies,” he says.

“What appears to be a quick and simple idea on paper, however, is struggling to manifest itself in the commercial world. Servicemen and women often pitch their ‘project management’ capabilities, when in reality they have little or no actual commercial awareness. What they do have, however, is an abundance of technical skills that are much sought after by organisations such as ours, and which they should be encouraged by their advisors to promote.

“Security is not a low skill environment – not at any level,” he concludes. “We simply need to ensure the skills that people have, or that they are being taught, are the skills that are going to shift the needle.”

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