So, you’ve never heard of Get Licensed?

If you’ve been in the UK security industry for any length of time, you probably have a good idea what Get Licensed is. A friend of mine who is thinking about joining the industry however, spotted on LinkedIn that I did some consultancy work for them, and asked who they were.

“Are they anything to do with TV Licensing?” he asked, much to my amusement. “Nope.” I replied. Spotting a chance for giggle, I asked him to keep guessing.

“Part of the DVLA?” he tried with more confidence. “Ah….. No. I responded unhelpfully.”

“Some branch of the SIA?” he suggested. “Getting warmer……”.

“Right. It’s to do with fishing isn’t it?” “ OK. Stop now.” We would have been there all day.

In Brief

Quite simply Get Licensed is the UK’s largest security industry training network. They work with high quality, vetted and ongoingly assessed, training providers across the length and breadth of the country, to provide both statutory Security Industry Authority licensing courses and a whole catalogue of extra relevant and useful training.

I asked them a little while ago, just how many students have taken their courses. There were a few puzzled looks around the room before one of the team replied that the last time anyone checked, they were well over 300,000. Thinking I had misheard, I checked the figure with him. “Yes, but that’s well out of date now. We really haven’t had the time to update the statistics.”

I may enthuse about how great I think Get Licensed are, but the REAL test of any company is from the reviews of the people that use it. With that in mind I make no apologies for mentioning some social media and online review site, statistics.

• Trustpilot rating of: (Excellent) 4.8 out of 5 with over 21950 reviews.
• Google rating of: 4.8 out of 5 with over 3686 reviews.
• Facebook rating of: 4.9 out of 5 with over 27000 page followers.

Coming to better understand just how the company works, I can really see where their efforts have been focussed, and it hasn’t been on producing exciting stats however.

How Get Licensed Started

A few months ago I had a chat with their workaholic CEO, and the entrepreneur that started the company, Shahzad Ali.

Some years ago, Shahzad was working as a security officer in a very public facing role, when he was approached by a couple of keen individuals who asked him about his job, and where they could go to get the necessary training. Ninety nine out of a hundred people would have suggested they look at the SIA website, or checked the internet, but Shahzad had heard some horror stories about local training companies and didn’t want to signpost these chaps towards any organisation that would provide a bad experience and put them off the industry for good. Instead, in one fateful split-second decision, the sentence “I can sort that out for you,” suddenly became the seed from which Get Licensed rapidly grew.

Shahzad has never forgotten his roots as a front-line security officer, and it is this experience that governs the direction of the company. Anything that Get Licensed does has to successfully answer one question, “will what we do, make the lives of security officers easier or better?” It isn’t glib or trendy marketing. I have seen the way the leadership at Get Licensed work. I have never seen a team of people so dedicated to achieving the goals of the CEO. Shahzad has said that he feels that his employees are more like family, and they are absolutely treated as such.

So what else does Get Licensed do?

As you would expect, it spends a huge amount of time and money producing FREE online educational and guidance content. From Blogs looking at security industry news, issues, or developments, to an immensely useful and well produced one hour first aid refresher video, the ideal way to prevent skills fade between courses or to jog your memory before a test.

Looking at ways to produce value for security professionals, Get Licensed introduced the outstanding GuardPass a FREE smartphone app which gives users a simple and user friendly way to access all of the portfolio of useful initiatives:

• The Get Licensed training finder: Providing a fast and easy way to locate and book the training you want, all over the UK. To help with your test preparation you can even take their FREE (again) mock exams. Get licensed is also so certain of the quality of training that its partners provide, it also provides a no quibble full money back guarantee, if the training didn’t live up to expectations or there was a problem.
• The new and industry leading, Jobs Board: Already being used by most of the largest security companies in the UK and designed for ease of use by security professionals for security professionals. You can create a profile, but best of all, you can attach a short, high-quality video, introducing yourself to potential employers. This has proven to be immensely successful at getting officers the interviews they need.
• CPD (Continuing Professional Development)
  Create a profile on the GuardPass app, and you have access to the Get Licensed “Skills Badges”. Each badge is obtained after the successful completion of a few days of subject related tests. You can post them on your profile and when job hunting, they give potential new employers a great idea of your knowledge, engagement and enthusiasm.
• The security equipment shop: A great place to stop for your operational security essentials, at prices that only the buying power of Get Licensed can achieve. The stock list is continuously growing and it is well worth a visit from time to time.
• The industry blog section: In depth advice guidance, news, opinion and everything security, from some experts in the sector. (And I’m able to occasionally slip an article or two past their quality control!) 
• Online Training Courses: High quality, online courses on a range of important security related subjects. Well produced, and excellent value, with clear and expert content.

I touch base with their team once a week and believe me when I say they have big ideas, and industry improving ambitions. Best of all, they have the drive and determination to achieve anything they set out to do. With headlining plans in the pipeline, I very much doubt there will be anyone left that won’t have heard of Get Licensed in the not too distant future.