🛑 Don’t be Fooled or Let Them Think You’re Stupid! Here’s How to Choose the Right Training Centre for Your Training

🏢 1st – What Makes a Training Centre Good

Well, put the obvious credentials aside like:

• Companies House Registration – A company must be registered on Companies House, and the registration number should be displayed clearly on the website, so you don’t have to dig deeper to find out who they are, how long they’ve been operating, etc.

• Approval Details – Centres delivering courses (especially SIA courses) must be approved by one of the recognised awarding bodies in the UK. A decent centre should display their centre number on the website for clarity and verification purposes. If other companies don’t show this, call them and ask which awarding body they are with and what their centre number is. Then call the awarding body to verify before making a purchase.

• SIA Register – Every approved centre to deliver SIA Courses must be listed on the SIA register. For instance, we have a direct link on our website — you can literally search our name on the SIA register with one click. If other companies don’t provide a link, at least do your due diligence and check them out on the SIA website.

These are very basic credential checks you should do before booking a course.

🎓 2nd – You Need to Understand the Level of Trainers the Centre Has

A lot of centres advertise: “We have professional trainers”, “qualified personnel”, etc. and might quote things like “Trainers with 10 years of training experience”.

Well, none of those words should mean anything to you. Here's why:

“10 years of training experience” — what that might mean in real life is that someone sat at a desk for 10 years and read slides word-for-word to their learners. In our experience, a minimum of 60% of trainers do exactly that. But you don’t need someone to read for you — that’s not why you’re there. You need a trainer who can interpret the material and give you real-life examples to help you understand how everything works in practice.

Why are there incompetent trainers around? Because the current regulations allow people with minimal experience to do a few qualification courses and become approved trainers.

For example – what it currently takes to become an SIA trainer:

Previous law about trainers:

a) The law used to say one needed 60 hours of experience per year to qualify as an SIA trainer. That’s roughly one week in a full-time position if you work 12 hours a day — or 1.5 weeks if you work 40 hours a week.

b) Later, they changed the rule to two years’ experience, with a minimum of 60 hours per year. That means if someone did just one week’s work (60 hours) this year, and another 60 hours next year, then attended the right courses and got the right qualifications, they could become a trainer.

What would someone like that teach you? We’ll leave that to your imagination.

That’s why the industry is full of trainers with the experience described above.

Current law about trainers:

As far as we see it, it says a trainer must have a minimum of two years’ experience. But it doesn’t explain what counts as two years.

• Does it mean full-time work for two years?

• Does occasional work over two years also count?

Nothing is clarified — as far as we are concerned, it’s left to interpretation. Again, We’ll leave the value of that kind of trainer up to your interpretation as well.

✅ What do we ask of our trainers at SWBM Academy?

We ask for a minimum of 15 years of real field experience — not training experience. Why? Because unless you’ve seen it, done it, and solved real problems in the field, you have no idea what the job really involves. And 15 years is plenty of time to experience almost everything.

Just for clarity: no one at SWBM ACADEMY has less than 20 years of field experience ✅.

🧑‍🏫 3rd – Classroom Sizes

Training companies often overcrowd rooms with students to maximise profits — sometimes 30, 40, 50 or more people in the same classroom.

Obviously, no meaningful training can happen in that kind of setting. Technically, you will learn nothing. You might hear a few jokes and some reading from slides, but you’re guaranteed not to learn properly with so many people. It’s impossible for one trainer to pay attention to every student.

Why does this happen? Because current regulations have loopholes, and training centres use them to make more money.

The regulation says: 12 learners per trainer. But if you register 2 trainers, you can put 24 in a room. 3 trainers = 36 learners, and so on.

But ask yourself — have you ever seen 3 trainers teaching at once? They only exist on paper. One class cannot realistically be taught by multiple people at the same time, especially when their experiences and teaching styles don’t match. It would confuse learners more than anything.

In reality, the class is taught by one trainer, and 99.99% of the time, the others are never seen.

How much do learners benefit from that? 0%.

Please note: We do not exceed the required number of learners per class. No class we deliver has more than 12 participants. As a result, the quality of our training is unparalleled ✅.

🎁 4th – The Package Deals

Some training companies advertise package deals that sound impressive but give you nothing extra. They raise the prices and add hidden costs, especially for things like First Aid qualifications, which are not clearly advertised at the start.

Here are some of the silly things you’ll see included in “premium” packages:

• Job search tools – That’s called Google 😊 — free to use. There are hundreds of recruitment companies and employers advertising online.

• Instant access to eLearning – Every centre offering blended learning has this—it cannot be delivered without providing learners access to the eLearning platform.

• Same day exam results – Only applies if you take the exam online. If not, it takes 7 working days.

• Unlimited exam retakes until you pass – Check their terms and conditions—there is usually a time limit, such as 12 months or 6 months. It’s not truly ‘until you pass’ or ‘lifetime access’; you must pass within the specified period.

• Lifetime access to training videos – No one really watches these after completing the course. And if you genuinely need them, you can simply download and save them yourself, giving you lifetime access anyway—so it’s nothing special.

• CV writing – In the 21st century, this is hardly a valuable service. Google and Microsoft offer hundreds of free templates. All you need to do is fill in your details, and within five minutes, you’ll have a professional CV. Yet some providers charge hundreds of pounds extra for this, as if it’s something truly valuable.

 So, when you see these "deals", always ask: "🚫 What am I actually getting for the extra money?"

At SWBM Academy, we don’t engage in any of that. If we increase the package price, it always includes something extra, such as an additional qualification that contributes to the learner’s development.

SWBM Academy – some of the offerings

✅Taught by field officers – Absolutely!

✅ No pass? No problem – Unlimited resits-0% risk - Absolutely! No time limit.

✅ Trusted by 1000s across London – Absolutely! Our training speaks for itself, no complaints.

✅ Unbeatable Quality – no doubt!

✅ No hidden costs – Absolutely!

✅ Training guarantee – Absolutely! we have never cancelled a course.

✅ All-inclusive prices – Absolutely!

✅Unbeatable deals – Absolutely!

✅ Save up to 57% – Absolutely! In many cases, even more.

and many others. Please visit our website for full details.

📚 5th - Finally, you need to pay close attention to the type of knowledge the training can provide.

When you're starting a new career and taking your first steps into the industry, it is crucial to begin the right way. Only trainers with real field experience can give you the knowledge required to start your journey properly.

Many people believe they don’t need proper training and that they’ll learn everything on the job, but this is simply not true.

Well over 70% of people in the private security industry from regular guards to company directors lack the necessary knowledge regarding laws, regulations, and practical experience.

Much of their understanding is based on:

·        Hearsay from so-called experienced colleagues

·        Assumptions

• What a colleague told them

• What seems “common sense”

• Cultural views or moral judgement

Let’s test that:

For example: If we asked whether a male security officer in a school is allowed to physically search (using hands) a 14-year-old female pupil, most people would likely answer "No, that’s wrong." because it feels morally wrong.

However, that is not about morals, we are judged on laws of the country and in this particular case on what the official guidance from the Department for Education says. There are exceptions where such a search is legally permitted.

Still don’t believe it? Ask any so-called experienced security operative whether a male officer can physically search a 14-year-old female pupil in a school and see how many incorrect answers you receive.

The point is this:

If you haven’t received proper training and end up working for the wrong company or alongside poorly trained staff (which, sadly, is highly likely under current industry standards), what will you actually learn on the job? The answer is: very little, if anything at all. You’ll pick up bad habits. And those bad habits could lead to:

• Legal trouble

• Losing your licence

• Losing your job, etc.

💬 Final Thought

I hope this article helped you understand how to choose a proper training centre. If you need any help or have questions, feel free to get in touch 020 8036 5777 — we’re happy to guide you.