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The 2010 Guide to Finding Work in Close Protection is ONLY available to CPO Club members. It is an exclusive publication which will be updated annually, so if you are not a member, and want a copy, then join us now...membership is less than 50 UK pence (75 US cents) a week !

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"Essential reading for any Close Protection Officer looking for work, or for those considering entering the close protection industry"

Following on from the successful "How To Find Work as a Bodyguard" (first published in 2003), with tons of articles, information, links, contractors and employers worldwide, The 2010 Guide to Finding Work in Close Protection is fully updated and revised and tells you virtually everything you need to know about finding work in this specific sector of security. 

Almost 90 pages !

Contents

• Introduction
• Bodyguards Throughout History
• Bodyguards Around the World
• UK licensing and the Security Industry Authority (SIA)
• Training in the UK
• Effective Networking for the CPO
• Your CV
• Setting Up Abroad
• A conversation with one of the most experienced protectors in the USA
• Further Training – Unarmed Combat
• Further Training – Driver Training
• Maritime Security
• Air Marshals
  
• UK and International Contractors
• Other interesting websites and information

The 2010 Guide to Finding Work in Close Protection

CHAPTER SAMPLE - THE INTRODUCTION

 On the 09th February 2010 according to the SIA website, there were 5794 valid UK close protection (CP) licences. That is almost six thousand registered, government approved bodyguards with accredited licenses to theoretically operate as a protector against assault, kidnapping and even assassination. Yes, almost SIX THOUSAND (!!!) licensed close protection officers in a country that is still classed as one of the safest and dependable for the corporate and celebrity arena. There are not that many more bodyguards operating in Russia, classed as one of the most dangerous for the corporate and celebrity arena.

Before the government introduced compulsory licensing and a so-called 'national' standards of training for close protection officers, the number of civilian bodyguards operating in the UK was probably around several hundred only – although there was no real way of telling how many actual people had taken a bodyguard training course as there was no official accreditation, registration or licensing system. Before the SIA there were only a small number of bodyguard training course providers and even fewer were accredited by local training organisations or authorities such as MANCAT (Manchester College or Art and Technology). Some courses were excellent and many course providers really did care about the quality of their training; with the goals always to produced top quality bodyguards. Some courses were not that good at all and there were even a few correspondence courses - yes, back in the 80s and 90s you could get a 'so-called' bodyguard certificate from a 'so-called' bodyguard training company without ever having to step out of your front door !

Before SIA licensing, close protection was undeniably an elite, closed industry and in the UK it was mainly populated by former SAS and Royal Military Police. Basically, to be a BG before SIA licensing you had to be really good; you had to have a whole variety of skills and training and originate from elite stock. Bodyguarding was highly paid, an extremely hard career to get into, the best training courses were generally extremely difficult and intense and only the best of the best would go onto find work in this sector. That was a fact and that was the way it was. And that is how it should be today, but sadly since the SIA took over it is now totally the opposite.

From the beginning of time and throughout the ages, bodyguards were generally intensively trained elite soldiers with special skills and awesome reputations who would, without hesitation or doubt, lay down their lives for their protectee. The Praetorian Guard protected the Roman Emperors; the fearsome Varangian Guards from Scandinavia who were first tasked to protect the Byzantine emperor Basil II in 988; The Housecarls who were introduced to Anglo-Saxon England by King Canute after the Danish invasion; The French Imperial Guard during Napoleon's era. And the list goes on and on. Over the centuries only the very best were chosen for their roles as protectors, and as mentioned above, this was generally the case in the UK until fairly recently with many highly trained bodyguards originating from some of the most elite and highly trained forces.

For sure, there were modern-day wannabes - as in any industry - but undoubtedly before licensing there were generally few and far between and certainly there were a lot less of them in the industry than there are today. A wannabe standing alongside a 20 year SAS veteran didn't last long at all in the world of CP back then and generally very quickly quit when they realised the exceptional standards of most close protection officers. Back then almost all CPOs on the circuit were highly trained, immensely respected and were fully committed to their responsibilities and roles. That was before the British government decided to open up the industry to every Tom, Dick and wannabe and today government approved bodyguard training is now available to literally everyone and anyone who has about £1500 spare and a couple of weeks of time. There is nothing elitist in the close protection industry in the UK any more; even an 18 year old supermarket shelf-filler can apply, attend and most probably pass a close protection training course. You do not need anything apart money, time, an identity check, and a criminal record check; you do not need to be fit, you do not need any self-defence training what-so-ever, you do not even need a driver's license ! Yes, in the UK today you can go on a Government approved close protection training course at 18 years old, pass the exam and obtain a Government approved bodyguard license without even having a driver's license – no wonder many British licensed bodyguards are now the laughing stock of the world ! Fucking SIA !!!

The fact that in Britain today absolutely anyone can become an approved, government licensed close protection officer is, in my opinion, not only appalling and ludicrous but considerably dangerous. Why ? Because a bodyguard is ultimately tasked to protect someone's life and the British government should never officially authorise anyone to perform such a significant and crucial task who has neither the training, skills, expertise or experience to do so. The SIA states that '...a Close Protection licence is required when guarding one or more individuals against assault or against injuries that might be suffered in consequence of the unlawful conduct of others...' yet bizarrely it does not deliver the training needed to counter against such assault as it provides no close quarter combat training at all. All police officers go through the same basic 12 to 18 week residential training course and then serve for their first two years as a probationary constable. A fire-fighter attends an induction course lasting between 12 and 16 weeks. A bodyguard who could ultimately be asked to put themselves in harm's way in hostile and dangerous situations, need only attend a 2 week (maximum) course and pay the course fee. That is it. Fact.

Surely if the government's objective with licensing and training was to professionalise the close protection industry and ultimately raise standards, would it not make sense to make close protection a much harder career to get into ? And rather than make training courses easy and the pass grade low, surely courses should be much more difficult and demanding and exam pass marks much higher ? And if you are training someone in the complexities of ultimately protecting someone's life, surely there should be a better screening process for prospective candidates that just a cursory criminal record and identity check ? You don't professionalise the industry by opening it up to anyone and everyone ! You don't professionalise an industry by commercialising courses so much that the training provider's only real interest is the quantity of bodies on seats and not the quality of bodyguards passing the course. And you don't sanction training providers who will pass each and every student who has paid his course fees, regardless of whether they will make good CPOs.

When I ran the Worldwide Federation of Bodyguards back in the '80s and early '90s, we would regularly kick people off the course before it finished (with no refund) if they were obviously not suited to the close protection environment, and over about ten years of running the Federation I think we only passed around 40-50% of all students that attended our courses. The other 50-60% just did not make the grade and would never make good bodyguards, no matter how hard they tried or how much they wanted to be a bodyguard. We are who we are, some are natural protectors, most however are not. In a fight or flight situation, most human beings would flee; it is a natural and normal reaction to get away from harm's way. Bodyguards should be the opposite, to put themselves in harms way if needed. When I ran the WFB we would never, ever pass someone just because they paid us ! And because of it ultimately we knew that any guard who trained with us and passed our course would be the very best that they could be, and a great many went onto long careers in close protection.

Now however, almost every single student that attends a CP course, passes. Another sad fact ! One CP training course actually boasts a 100% pass rate in their brochure. Knobs at the SIA listen carefully - this is definitely NOT professionalising the industry ! Most training companies now are not at all interested in producing really good bodyguards; their only interest is money and getting as many people through the course as possible. This is the case for almost every single training course provider, and even the once highly respected and esteemed course providers are now not at all interested in producing good bodyguards any more because it just does not matter – those course providers know exactly who they are and they can only but agree.

However, saying all that, undeniably Britain still has some of the most highly-respected, highly-trained and highly regarded bodyguards in the world and who are unsurpassed on the global CP arena, but now they number perhaps just 20% of the total number of licenses held. The other 80% of licenses are held by individuals who should never be in this industry. Before the licensing this was definitely the other way round, with 80-90% professionals and the remainder wannabes.

And of course there are still a very few quality CP training course providers that really do care about the industry and calibre of bodyguards they are producing, but they are definitely in the minority rather than the majority and I don't know of any training company now that will kick a student off the course even if they are crap. As I mentioned, most training companies really don't give a toss about producing good guards any more, they are just interested in the course fee, cutting costs and getting through the training as quickly as possible. Another training course provider proudly boasts of getting you through the course in just one week ! The SIA has a compulsory 150 hours of instruction, so this means that if you attended that particular one-week course you would have to work 21.5 hours a day for seven days to get through the course schedule ! Of course this is not the case so again this is yet another way that the SIA has 'so-called' professionalised the close protection industry.

Of course passing the course and getting a license doesn't mean you will get a job. Far from it; in fact the majority of SIA trained bodyguards will never actually get any work in this industry whatsoever and most will give up after a few months of sending their résumés blindly out to contractor after contractor with no reply. And this is something else that I feel really strongly about; the government has officially sanctioned training that actually very few will benefit from ! Personally I think this is really unfair and completely irresponsible.

So let me be really open and honest before you read any further; with almost 6000 licensed close protection officers in the UK alone, plus many thousands more with security degrees or other related qualifications, unless you can offer something more than just an SIA badge, looking for work within this relatively small sector of the security industry will, for most people, be extremely difficult. Also, don't forget, if you are applying for international positions you are also competing with tens of thousands of other well-trained trained close protection personnel worldwide. If you really want a career in close protection you are going to have to work really hard and invest a lot of time and money in developing your training portfolio, for unless you have an elite background, having just an SIA license will get you nowhere. And after over 20 years in the industry I can almost guarantee that most people reading this publication will nod their heads in complete agreement yet actually end up doing very little or nothing about it. These are the wannabes in the industry, these are the people that want to say they are a trained and licensed bodyguard without ever having done a days protection work in their lives. And these are the people that know nothing about the industry yet will not listen to others and follow their own route and then they will complain that nobody replies to their unsolicited emails or that there is no work out there.

And unfortunately I can also sadly guarantee that almost everyone reading this will actually end up doing other jobs after a year or two and forget about a career in close protection. This will be because they have no resources to invest in their career, they have no real knowledge of the industry (apart from what they are taught on their training course), they are too lazy to learn and unwilling to invest their time and money in looking for work. And sadly most are simply not suited to this industry. I know the industry really well and I have seen it time and time again and you too can see it on the many close protection forums that litter the internet; bitter, angry people that have done nothing much to further their lives or careers yet who moan about everything and blame everyone. If it was easy getting a job in close protection then 6000 SIA license holders would all be working and no one would be reading this ! I really do wish this was not the case but sadly it is.

Most people entering this industry have never ever stood in front of a mirror and honestly asked themselves some vitally important yet rudimentary questions; Can I really be a bodyguard ? Do I really look the part ? Is this really a career I want ? And am I really able and willing to do the job and do I really have the skills to ultimately protect somebody's life ? For those that can honestly answer YES to these questions, there is definitely work out there; in fact there is lots of work out there you just need to know what to do and where to look.
The security industry worldwide is one of the only industries that has grown during this so called 'credit crunch' and the threat level in almost every country worldwide has never been higher. Security is the number one concern for virtually everyone and both governments and businesses consistently spend a lot of time and an awful lot of money keeping themselves safe and out of harm's way. Most high-net worth individuals employ personal security, even in the UK where things are still relatively safe compared to many other parts of the world. And almost every business operating in any of sixty or so medium to high risk countries worldwide have security departments and use some form of security services. Undeniably the industry is massive and personal security is an important part of the industry.

And so, to be completely frank and honest, the only person stopping you finding work is...you!

Maybe you don't have the right qualifications, or enough qualifications. Maybe you are not looking in the right places, or you don't know where to look, or you are just too lazy to spend hours trawling the net. Maybe you haven't joined the right forums or job search services, or you haven't submitted your CV to the right employment agencies. Maybe you haven't spoken to the right people or you simply do not have the right attitude. Maybe you give up too easily ? The list, (and of course your excuses) for not finding work are endless and I have heard them all, time and time again. Most people at fault never blame themselves do they ? They always blame someone or something else, and this is the case with people looking for work in close protection too. I manage to find around fifty CP and related jobs a month, some people struggle to find just the one !

Many, many people will spend a lot of money and time on attending a close protection training course, but then virtually nothing else thereafter on either further training or marketing themselves and looking for work. You can have the best product in the world but it's pretty irrelevant if no one actually knows about it ! For example, I recently had an email from someone saying they had just spent £1500 on a CP training course but now cannot even afford £24.50 to join The Close Protection Officer's Club. He genuinely did expect that his £1500 would not only buy him a CP license, but a job ! He did not believe that he needed to do anything else; he thought that employers and contractors would be knocking on his door wanting him to work for them ! But of course this did not (and will never) happen and the sad truth is that he is now unemployed and this will almost certainly be the end of his close protection career - before it ever began. Let's face it, if he can't afford even £24.50 a year (less than 50 pence a week) how is he going to send out hundreds of CV's, make telephone calls, go knocking on people's doors and write letters time and time again, each and every week ? I emailed him back asking him to take a 50 pence piece out from his pocket and put it on the table. Not much money was it ? But even that was too much much for him. He is already bitter and angry and he only got his badge a few months ago, and he arrogantly told me I should provide the Job Search service to everyone for free. Would he work for free, I asked him ? Of course not ! Needless to say I have not heard from him since.

In the UK, because of the general poor quality of many close protection training schools and the fact that almost anyone can now attend a CP training course and obtain an license; as I mentioned, having a SIA license alone is not a guarantee of a job, although like the person described above, it seems from the feedback and comments I have had over the years, many people more or less expect doors to be opened and their phone to be ringing with job offers the minute they get their license. In Russia, having a government approved close protection licence more or less guarantees you a well-paid (by Russian standards) job for life, as the training you need to go through and the conditions of getting a license in Russia means you are someone very special and someone who has very particular skills. I remember attending a CP course run by the company Grant-Vymple in Moscow many years ago. Their close quarter unarmed combat was like nothing I had seen previously. I was in awe of these guards. The teams and how they operated were such an inspiration. And it hasn't changed. I also remember attending an SIA CP course in Norwich a couple of years ago to give a talk, and one of the students was so overweight and unfit, he got out of breath climbing the two flights of stairs to the classroom. (and yes, he passed the course and got his SIA close protection license). Fat, unfit British government officially licensed bodyguard versus elite Russian government officially licensed bodyguard. This is an example of the kind of embarrassment the British government and SIA has brought to the industry. Wouldn't it be great if the Government completely overhauled the SIA and once again made British bodyguards some of the best and most highly trained in the world, instead of some of the worst and under-trained ? Then every guard getting a license will be in work and earning a good wage and no one will waste money on a course for a career they will never be able to enter ! But the Government and the SIA just doesn't give a toss does it ?

So what things can you do to increase the chances of finding work in this industry? Well, that is what this guide will be about; its aims are primarily to show you the different routes and options you can take to raise your chances of getting a well-paid and interesting position in this fascinating industry.

To be a professional you need to know exactly what being a professional means so firstly in this guide we will briefly explore historical bodyguarding, from the Romans and Greeks and Viking bodyguards through to the modern protection units of today, and look briefly at some of the elite units around the world that protect the rich and famous.

For those who are considering the industry we look at the SIA licensing process and at close protection training because if you chose to train with the right company it can actually do your career a world of good, but if you choose to train with the wrong company, it can end you career before it even starts, as well as wasting a great deal of your money and time. Legally, we can't actually name the bad course providers, but we can show you what to look for in the good ones !

And then we are going to look briefly at further training and specialising. This is vitally important for two reasons; firstly you need more than you basic SIA training to get a good job and secondly I believe it is far better to specialize in one aspect of protection that to try and be a jack of all trades. If you develop a reputation at, for example, Witness Protection then you eventually become a specialist in that area which makes you much more employable. Time and time again you will find that companies that specialise in a few core areas get lots of work whereas those that list everything hoping to 'catch-all' actually end up getting less. One moron asked me to look at his new website where he listed about twenty different categories of service. I asked him which was his speciality, and he said none; he boasted he could do them all but none particularly well ! Needless to say he has not got any work yet either. If I was a celebrity and needed protection I would definitely want to go to someone who specialises in celebrity protection. Makes sense ?

Also in this guide I will also ask you to look carefully at your unique selling points and at what makes you different to the thousands of other CPOs worldwide ? If you say there is nothing different or special or unique about you, well its about time you found something because once again, having just an SIA badge is not enough.

We will also look closely at effective networking and marketing for the CPO, as unsurprisingly this is an integral and important part of the job hunting process. When I was operational I always, always told people what I did. Those who say they should keep it quiet and confidential are talking bollocks and live in a Walter Mitty world. If no one knows what you do for a living, no one is going to employ you. If I got chatting to someone and they asked what I did I always told them Protective Security, and because of it, my career has developed. One person whom I gave my business card to came back to me a year later with a tidy little contract. Another person put me onto someone else, who put me onto someone else, who gave me a contract to look after a top celebrity when he visited Moscow. Networking and marketing yourself works !

Other subjects briefly covered in this publication are building a great résumé, setting up abroad, maritime security, air marshalling and employment contracts. All of these are books unto themselves so it is impossible to look at every subject in detail, but this Guide aims to give you an overview for you to then research subjects are areas of particular interest more thoroughly. We also list contractors and interesting websites worldwide.

This Guide will ONLY be available to Close Protection Officer's Club members and it will be updated annually. So if you are not a member, and want a copy, then join us now!

Ultimately, however, it is entirely up to you whether you end up working in close protection...or not.

COPYRIGHT - Robin Barratt
The Close Protection Officer's Club

 

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