Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry newsletter
17th April 2024 Issue no. 701
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Qualifications body leads review into security training centres
A UK awarding body has announced an open and thorough review of its quality procedures after a source warned of malpractice in a centre offering security qualifications. The focus of the review will be to determine whether additional approaches could be adopted that might detect malpractice more reliably and quickly.
West Midlands based Industry Qualifications, which oversees colleges and training providers that offer qualifications to the security industry, has briefed both Ofqual and the Security Industry Authority after it was informed of potential fraudulent behaviour at two training centres approved by the company. To date, one of those centres has been identified.
Assessments and the issue of qualifications at that centre have been placed on hold while an inquiry is conducted.
Chief executive Raymond Clarke commented: "At the end of last month, a source warned us of malpractice at one of our centres. We take such issues extremely seriously and have decided to look at all of our procedures. Where we find malpractice, certificates will be withdrawn and learners will be given the opportunity to be independently re-tested."
"It is important that we get to the bottom of this allegation and act to ensure such malpractice cannot be repeated. IQ uses all of the standard techniques deployed by awarding organisations to identify and manage malpractice, but we recognise that approaches can always be improved, and we need to explore whether we can enhance common practice to make it quicker to identify malpractice."
"We have contacted all of our customers to keep them informed and have briefed both the Security Industry Authority and Ofqual and asked them to guide us in this review process.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy with regard to malpractice and if proved we will take the strongest possible sanctions against the centre. As an organisation we strive to go above and beyond the industry norms and are confident that once the investigation is completed and lessons learnt we will be able to detect the very small minority of failing centres far more quickly."
"We have also discussed this matter with the police and I hope that, through this honest and open approach, we can stimulate a wider industry led discussion about the identification and eradication of malpractice.
Whilst we are not complicit in this allegation, it is only by working together, in partnership with other awarding organisations and regulators, that we can reduce the risk of fraud and malpractice creating a more secure training platform for all industry stakeholders."
For more information please contact Hannah Campbell on 01527 910 864 or [email protected]
1st April 2015