A security professional who organizes and executes the required actions to keep a high-profile client or clients safe from potential threats is known as an executive protection agent. But, if you want good agents, you have to make sure they get the right training options. The EP industry isn’t particularly recognized for its innovation, which means that the executive protection training process usually includes schools and courses that have not been updated for a while.
This is a mistake and, in this article, we will explore some issues and solutions to make our business better for everyone, which is the ultimate goal.
Why do we don’t know where to start?
When we talk about executive protection training, there are a couple of things that always strike me as really funny. There are a lot of people who want to train at the most basic level. Also, there are a lot of people looking for training in order to break into the industry.
The point is, it’s very hard to find higher-level executive protection training.
We can find a lot of basic training but it’s very hard to find training for people who have been in the industry for a long time.
Why is that?
There should be plenty of people out there who have been in the industry for a long time that want something else than just going to the traditional EP school. They usually go the school and learn and relearn things they already know, which is not right.
Nobody offers level two training, supervisor training, or training in products that make people smarter and it’s one of the bigger problems that we have.
If we all keep focusing on just training people that get into the industry basic stuff, is it because it’s easy? Is it because we already know it? Is it because we are lazy and we don’t want to reinvent our own products or is it because we don’t know what is needed?
But if you look at it from a more holistic approach, if we want to build an industry that continues to grow, we need to adapt to this need and our training needs to evolve. We can keep on training the basics of making the agent a faster and better shooter, a better medic, and all of that stuff, but that doesn’t take anybody to a level where they can grow further.
How come nobody teaches intelligence for EP, conducting threat assessments, or any of the plethora of skills and training that can help agents get smarter, better and maybe build their career? You really have to look outside of the EP schools to get the education that is important for you and your growth. With that, you can help the industry improve and bring it to the next level.
So, whose fault is it?
I think the issue is that most schools are doing what they have always done in terms of education and training and that’s a problem. The next problem is the operators. We tend to buy training that’s attractive. We all want to go shoot and drive fast cars because that’s fun. If you look at people in this industry, what do they do in their spare time?
They are all good shooters and fighters. They are super interested in their medical stuff, but very few of them do project management or learn to speak Mandarin or some of the things that would be really smart for the industry. Improving our business is our job, and we have to do more than train the same old stuff.
Another thing that I think is interesting is that about half of the clients I talk to have interests in electric cars. They all talk about switching to fully electric, and several states in America talk about this option all the time. Even California has given dates as to when you will not be able to buy a car with a regular engine anymore. Is this reflected in the training we offer?
No. I can hear someone saying “Well that’s because you can’t do security driving in electric cars.”
Well, guess what? Then we have to come up with something else.
Because we can’t change the client’s mind, so we need to change our mindset. So when you look at training, how come we don’t do training that’s up to date? We still want to teach the executive protection training the State Department taught us thirty years ago, and there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s just got to be more options out there.
So why are electric cars a good example?
Here’s the thing, if our clients want to use electric cars, we can’t change their minds, right? So maybe we can come up with something and convince them to use hybrid model – so it’s not all electric, but they can still say they drive electric cars. This is important because we care about what our clients think, but we are also there to guide them in their everyday lives.
We need to find out are there sensors that we can turn off and on, or how we conduct a risk assessment on these cars. This will help us stay close to the client and respect their opinion, while still putting protective measures in place.
The right executive protection training options can be more valuable than any other resources we can give to our clients or trainees. This is why every agency has to step up and do its part, and others will follow. The outdated systems of education we have in place were great back then, as we mentioned, but if we want to expand in every part of the world, we need good training.
This includes the cyber technology part of the protection, too. Not all bad folks are silent. Some are extremely creative and ready to create unique ways to exploit new vulnerabilities of our principals. Private security providers can’t and shouldn’t stand still if we are to properly address these concerns.
What’s the conclusion?
The conclusion is that we need to inform people about different protective measures they can take and how to train their employees and future agents in the right way. We need to do our research and push the industry forward to get the best results.
So, don’t wait and start now and you are going to see the difference in your work very soon!
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