Security Guard Training Online: 6 Specialized Courses to Take Your Career to the Next Level

Security guards are in high demand throughout the year. Unfortunately, most entry-level guard jobs don’t offer sustainable salaries for career-minded individuals, which has the ripple effect of forcing talented people out of the force to pursue other avenues.

However, if you love guard work and want to make a go of it for the long haul, specialized training adds valuable skills and knowledge to your basic training. It may also put you in line for better-paying posts, more responsibility, and career paths in management or command center roles.

Today, we’ll outline some of the key areas of focus that will help you level up your career. Best of all, it’s easy to access these courses online and obtain certifications that prospective employers will appreciate.

Having these skills in your repertoire will position you as a committed career-minded professional who takes guarding seriously. The more experience you have, the higher pay you’ll be eligible for, and it may just be the deciding factor in a recruiting scenario.

Six Areas of Focus for Advanced Security Guard Training

The following six focus areas are among the most in-demand skills a security guard can have. If you’re unsure where to begin, use these ideas as a starting point.

Fire and Safety Watch Training

Guards must be acutely aware of their environment using observational skills. In a fire situation, it is critical not only to identify hazards but also to know how to use fire suppression equipment and safely and quickly evacuate people in the event of a fire.

Guards trained on fire safety can help guide people to safety, staying calm in high-pressure environments. They can effectively manage the early stages of a fire before firefighters arrive, locate fire alarms and exits, and assist first responders when on scene.

Training helps guards to identify fire hazards, mitigate risk, and potentially save lives. A guard trained in fire safety has great value to the employer, as it reduces risk and liability.

Defencify’s Fire Safety and Fire Watch is a one-hour continuing education course covering the basics of fire safety and how guards can support first responders in fire emergencies.

Crowd Control and Event Security: Managing People Safely

Crowd control and event security are so much more than access control. Crowds exhibit unique behaviors that can be identified and mitigated using various techniques.

Defencify’s Crowd Management and Crowd Control is a two-hour course that covers concepts in situational awareness, guiding the movement of crowds (crowd management), and actions to take when large groups start to exhibit disorderly behavior (crowd control).

The intent is always mitigation. Once disorderly behavior escalates, the risk to public safety increases quickly. Well-trained guards are better equipped to handle what comes next and minimize damage to people (including themselves) and property.

First Aid and CPR

First aid training is mandatory for guards in some states. However, even if it isn’t required, it could mean the difference between life and death in certain circumstances.

First aid and CPR training are valuable in disasters and emergencies. The better you understand the protocols, the more quickly and confidently you can respond in the moment.

In Defencify’s two-hour Basic and Emergency First Aid course, you’ll learn how to provide life-saving care, stabilize injuries, stop bleeding, and get some theoretical training in CPR and AED.

Additionally, you might want to check out Narcan® Administration – Overdoses and Naloxone, as it aligns nicely with this topic. As drug poisoning becomes more prevalent, especially in high-risk environments, knowing what to do could save a life.

Safety Awareness

Safety awareness is critical in any guarded environment, but most especially in private security. Safety awareness helps guards to protect themselves, their clients, employees, and the public. Understanding the proper protocols is vital, too, as it ensures that guards’ conduct is professional and compliant with local, state, and federal laws.

Defencify’s four-hour Safety Awareness course covers situational awareness, threat assessment, environmental hazards, hazardous materials, person-to-person contact, and bloodborne pathogens.

Understanding the concepts outlined in this course supports proactive security and may help them mitigate injury or harm before it happens.

Crisis Intervention and Workplace Violence

Given that workplace violence is at unprecedented levels, guards are likely to face tense and challenging situations in the course of performing their duties. Responding appropriately, professionally, and quickly can help to prevent unnecessary injury and harm to people and property, but these skills aren’t learned overnight.

A continuing education course in crisis intervention is an excellent way to achieve a basic understanding of what security guards can do to manage a crisis effectively. However, this is a fundamental course, and only experience and practice will help you hone and perfect these techniques.

Additional courses you can take to support this learning include Proper Use of Force in Conflict Resolution, Power to Arrest, Dealing with Difficult People in Challenging Situations, and Using Verbal Judo – an excellent course for ramping up your powers of verbal persuasion.

Situational Response Training

Guards are often the first responders to highly charged events, such as accidents, emergencies, crime scenes, workplace violence, and disasters. Participants will learn appropriate response techniques to use in various scenarios, providing baseline training that helps guards identify warning signs and receive step-by-step guidance on what to do, as well as communication techniques, and emphasizing the importance of information security.

Defencify’s Situational Response training is offered in two modules. Part 1 is a two-hour course that outlines the concepts. Part 2 is a four-hour intensive covering specific incidents, including campus safety, fire safety, hazardous materials, and basic first aid.

By course completion, guards will have improved their situational awareness, risk assessment skills, decision-making abilities, and gained critical emergency response techniques. Successful course outcomes will help to reduce injuries, fatalities, and property damage and will boost guard confidence even in tense or dangerous situations.

How to Access Specialized Training

The advanced training courses we described today are available as online, self-paced courses. Guards can take them on their own schedule and, if you are employed, your firm may cover the costs. After all, you’ll be upgrading your skills with the intent to provide them with more value, and your commitment won’t go unnoticed.

Defencify offers dozens of on-demand, continuing education courses designed to provide guards with viable, real-world skills that make a difference. Browse our collection today and get learning. You’ve got everything to gain: better pay, better postings, more responsibility, and you may just find a niche that leads you to a rewarding lifelong career in security.