SIA licence holders may have to retrain after investigation finds malpractice among trainers

It comes as the Highfield Awarding Body for Compliance (HABC) found malpractice between October 2010 and May 2011 among training firms AAB Training, Adult Learning Network (ALN) and Get Licensed. Licensees used such companies for physical intervention training.

HABC has had to withdraw 1,284 certificates as part of the investigation. The company believes that of these qualifications, 821 had been used to obtain an SIA licence. It has withdrawn the physical intervention unit that applicants took to gain the Level 2 Award in Door Supervision, making the qualification invalid.

The SIA has contacted all licence holders involved, who will need to contact the body within 28 days or risk having their licence revoked.

Delia Elliott, of Tart bar in Shoreditch, East London, said that she had to spend another eight hours and £100 to retrain for the qualification.

Elliott, who took her training with AAB Training, said: “It’s a joke. I would like to take legal action because I have suffered a financial and time loss but am getting nowhere. It stinks.”

HABC chief executive Jason Sprenger said: “The malpractice (found during the investigation) was not disputed by the companies and HABC have removed company and tutor approval accordingly.

“HABC understands and shares the frustrations of the learners who have been affected by the actions of the three organisations. HABC have set up a dedicated telephone helpline and have already spoken with hundreds of concerned individuals. Anyone requiring further assistance, including individuals looking to secure the additional training required to meet the SIA licensing conditions, should contact us on 01302 363 154.

“HABC is firmly committed to ensuring the integrity of our qualifications is maintained at all times and takes any abuse very seriously.”

An SIA spokesperson added: “The SIA sets the specifications for the licence-linked qualifications, but does not provide training.

“When the qualifications were withdrawn, individuals stopped meeting the criteria to be a licence holder so we had no choice other than to take action and learners would need to re-sit at least the physical intervention module of their training.”

- Do you need to retrain for your SIA licence? If so, let us know at gurjit.degun@wrbm.com