Peter Swordy, ex head of centre of excellence and senior operations manager at Wembley National Stadium, and now director at Centrespot Consulting, said that while there are checks and balances in the system, the Security Industry Authority (SIA) “cannot be everywhere all of the time”.
“Maybe there are too many training providers out there and also the SIA licence has become a huge focus for the processing of apprenticeships, and that has driven the need to get quick and easy qualifications,” he said.
Swordy, who has also worked in HR for Canary Wharf Group and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, made his comments to HR magazine following a BBC investigation that found thousands of licensed security guards could be working in the UK fraudulently after buying qualifications.
Security guards must sit mandatory exams to get an SIA card. However, BBC researchers discovered colleges that either sat or forged exams for untrained students for a fee.
The fraudulent security guards caught by the BBC were delivering the '14 days/three weeks' close protection course that should take three weeks to complete.
Swordy said that despite the SIA shutting down several training providers there are still problems with some of them.
He added the practice of advertising a low course fee then charging a high price for the certificate is a “sure indicator” of a provider that is not operating correctly.
All SIA door supervisor licence-holders must undergo up-skilling training and qualification every three years when they renew their licences.
“We need to keep working away at maintaining quality and I think the SIA does that, but maybe there needs to be a lot more tightening up from awarding bodies and the SIA about how you set up as a training provider and maintain and prove your quality,” Swordy said.
