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By Phoebe Pin
Prospective security officers are being invited to take part in a nationally accredited course next month where they will be tutored in crowd control, first aid, RSA and anti-terrorism techniques.
Lucrative Security Services will host the 10 day Certificate II in Security Operations course in Kalgoorlie-Boulder to be delivered by Perth-based Strike Training and Consulting from February 14.
Strike is headed by former NSW police sergeant of 25 years Gaven Wicks, who said the security operations training provider was the only organisation to offer training on terrorism awareness to emerging security officers.
“We are all ex-police and armed forces operatives at Strike and we saw there was a bit of a gap as far as the training was concerned with security guards so we developed a course about three years ago,”he said.
The terrorism awareness training program was created by Mr Wicks and his associates and is being delivered in Kalgoorlie-Boulder as an unaccredited unit in the security operations course.
Mr Wicks said the program aimed to equip security officers with the skills required to identify and respond to unusual behaviour before an act of terrorism occurred.
“The whole idea of the course is not about responding after, we want to stop it before an act or terror happens,”he said.
Australian Bureau of Statistyics data shows there is an estimated 120,000 licensed security officers nationwide, with Mr Wicks suggesting these officers are better placed to apprehend someone exhibiting suspicious behaviour.
“These security officers are taking care of one block whereas police are taking care of a whole district so security guards are going to have better eyes on the ground,”he said.
Although he admitted Kalgoorlie-Boulder was less likely to experience terrorist activity than larger cities such as Perth, Sydney or Melbourne, Mr Wicks said it was always better to be prepared should an incident occur.
“Australia is not immune and Kalgoorlie is not immune to terrorism,” he said.
“Its better to be safe than sorry and you don’t want to wait for something to happen.”
Those interested in completing the course can contact Sue Davey at Lucrative Services at security3@bigpond.com