This is an important year for New Zealand’s security industry and Armourguard alike. That’s because the Government has announced it will introduce legislation giving members of the public – including security guards – additional powers where there are reasonable grounds for believing a person is committing an offence.

The NZ Security Association and the NZ Police soon will be running a security leaders forum to look at what this means for the security industry as a whole. The forum will also look at industrywide training guidelines for important frontline skills such as providing security services in crowded spaces.

Naturally Armourguard’s own training programme will be informed by these industry-wide developments and we will give relevant new training for our people in due course. It will complement our comprehensive security guard training, and specialised training for other security roles such as patrols, cash-in-transit, cash management, etc.

Our current security training programme

Being New Zealand’s largest, most experienced specialist guard and patrol company presents some training challenges because our employees are based all over New Zealand and deliver service around the clock.

Some of our training is classroom based because person-to-person practice is vital, for example when learning de-escalation skills.  However, the best way of reaching most people is by way of online training that lets them do their training at a place, time and pace that suits them. Our advanced online learning system assesses each person’s learning style and then tailors the training delivery to what works best for them. For example, some people learn better by watching or reading, while others prefer to listen.

All new employees are given induction training when they start at Armourguard training then specialised training is offered for different roles. For new starters working in frontline roles, the focus is on situational awareness, de-escalation, conflict management, communication and customer service skills. Over time some go on to get leadership skills training as they move into supervisory roles.

Ethics and integrity training important

Security personnel work in jobs that carry a high level of trust. That’s why at all times they must act ethically and conduct themselves with integrity. This means understanding the law and how it applies to security roles and also understanding what it means to be doing the right thing at all times.  

Ethics training begins as soon as an Armourguard employee starts with us. Everyone is taught our guide to ethical conduct in their induction training, with further modules and refresher courses to follow.

Bespoke, client-specific security training

We can also tailor our security training courses to meet specific client needs. For example, if a client requires our guards to receive bespoke training around awareness or customer service then we ensure all of our people working at the client site/s have been trained accordingly.

Security training for career development

We offer a wide range of security services, which gives our people the chance to develop their security careers by moving across into different roles or moving up into supervisor and senior supervisor jobs. This brings with it the opportunity to get higher qualifications – for example, study for NZQA Levels 3 and 4 in Security.

Training questions to ask your security services provider

Not all security companies provide comprehensive training to their frontline people, which can put your organisation and the security personnel at risk. Here are some useful questions you can ask to find out more about the company’s approach to training:

• What training is provided to [role]?
• Can you provide training records for individuals who would be assigned to provide security services to my organisation?
• How often is refresher training given?
• Are all of your staff trained in ethics conduct?
• Are all of your staff trained in health & safety practices?