Security Risk Management Consultants Course - Thoughts from a 'Civvy'

A few months ago I was chatting with some fellow young security professionals at a coffee morning in Kings Cross, and the subject of continuous professional development came up.

Pros and cons for a lot of different type of courses were banded around, including the ASIS certifications, University degrees and Industry backed courses.

One person had recently completed the Frontier Risks SRMC course and highly recommended it. No further thought was given to it, as I wasn’t looking for any further qualifications at the time.

Fast forward a couple of months, and I was now looking to focus my company, Lethbridge Solutions Ltd, more towards a security consultancy. Following some research into the SRMC course, I decided that the course syllabus would be a good fit for what I wanted to achieve.

Below are some of my thoughts on the course so far:

Introductions:

First up was the usual icebreaker of ‘who are you, what do you do and why are you on the course?’ As we went round the room my first thoughts where ‘oh boy, it’s going to be a bunch of current/former military types transitioning and the whole course will be heavily focused towards them’. I soon discovered that wasn’t going to be the case, and whilst at least two thirds of the class are military types, the group dynamics haven’t followed my initial stereotypical thoughts.

Day 1 & 2:

Straight into the Risk Management Process and ISO31000 taught by David Tait, Managing Director of Athena Risk Ltd. While this is not the most exciting subject, David kept our attention throughout and interspersed his presentation with practical activities in our smaller groups. Key takeaway point for me was ‘how are you communicating the risk to your client?’ i.e. 99.9% safe and 1-in-1000 risk of death is exactly the same!

Day 3:

Travel Risk Management and Media Risk Management were the order of the day, presented by Mark Grant, Regional Security Manager – EMEA for Netflix. Some very helpful suggestions on how to support the business and manage the risk from a security department perspective. Special guest appearance from documentary producer, Emile Ghessen, who provided a refreshing perspective on how our perception of events/people is affected by the media.

Social Aspect:

Located at the Emergency Planning College in York, they provide 3 meals a day, with plenty of choice. Luckily they also have an onsite gym, as after 12 days of cooked breakfast and scrumptious desserts at both lunch and dinner, you may be at risk of going home several kgs heavier than when you arrive!

The on-site bar has also been key to group dynamics, encouraging socialisation after the long days of presentations/course work. Just remember to pace yourself as sitting through a day of lectures with a hangover is not advised!!