Title – SIA
The Security Industry Authority better known as the SIA, was set up by the British Government “…to manage the licensing of the private security industry as set out in the Private Security Industry Act 2001 … to raise standards of professionalism and skills within the private security industry...”.
Beyond The Blue is an approved centre who administer the National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS). Candidates completing these examinations and meeting the requirements required by the SIA are eligible to apply for the SIA Door Supervisors licence.
Being awarded this licence allows individuals to work within the licensed retail sector security industry as a Door Supervisor in bars, pubs clubs etc. Being awarded this licence also allows the holder to work in the static and retail guarding sector without the need for further training or qualification.
It should be noted that people awarded the SIA guarding licence are not allowed to cross over into licensed door supervision. For this reason Beyond The Blue recommends the door supervisors training as the more sensible and cost effective approach; it allows those attaining it to explore a wider range of employment options and can lead to higher rates of pay and better job opportunities.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Title – Licensed Bars
Date – May 2007
Licensed retailing is far from easy, the concept that many have of buying a bar or pub and “retiring” to work in it, as a blissful and profitable way of life once their primary career comes to an end, is very short sighted.
The licensed retail trade is one of the countries most competitive. In 2006 over 25 pubs closed in the UK every month. Many more struggled along month after month desperately trying to make the figures at the end of each month turn in tiny profits; while landlords and managers worked every hour of each day and each day of every week, without a break.
There is no doubt that some are also a great success, but there is no straightforward formula for this success. Those individual bars and pubs that shine, are usually the result of the enlightened insight of the person running them, the way they understand their customer base and the quality of service they provide.
Sometimes the very nature of the work and the commitment required clouds the judgement of those desperate to make a success of the business. The expert advice of a skilled, experienced professional can make all the difference. It can shed a new light on where things need to be changed or improved and what services you are providing that already meet the high standards that success in the licensed trade demands.
Some of the most successful businesses in the industry have developed chains where they roll out very successful venues across the country based on sound fundamentals. These can be very successful if the formula is right at the time. But as some have learnt to their detriment, standing still is never an option; the industry never stops moving forward and leaves behind those that can’t keep up. The successful companies dominate by understanding their target market and providing exactly the services and standards their customers demand.
Beyond The Blue offers a Licensed Retail Sector Consultancy Service to help you address areas of your business that are in need of it and can help businesses that are already successful build on that success through strategic planning. For larger companies we also offer training packages including; the portfolio of BIIAB Licensing Courses; In-House Security Induction Courses (IHSI), Conflict Management & Resolution courses (CMR), National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS), and Fire Safety (FS) training.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – No martial arts
Date – November 2006
We don’t teach martial arts; we don’t expect candidates attending any of our courses to be experts in any form or martial arts by the end of a days training; we understand that anything we teach much be easy to absorb and easy to remember.
Here our instructor demonstrates what we don’t expect, tying yourself or anyone else into a knot just doesn’t work. We believe is simple and straight forward techniques that are easy to learn and easy to perfect. So when you find yourself needing to employ a personal safety technique, it comes back to you without the need to prance around like the Karate Kid.
Beyond The Blue provide training courses in a number of different sectors including; Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR), National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS), Physical Interventions (PI), Fire Safety (FS) & Personal Safety (PS).
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Group Presentation
Date – November 2006
Beyond The Blue will come to your place of work and provide your staff with training on-site. This approach saves your staff time and your business expense sending candidates away to be trained
Our courses include; the portfolio of BIIAB Licensed Retail Sector training courses; Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR); National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS); Physical Interventions (PI); and Fire Safety (FS).
We can effectively run courses at your venue providing you have the space, the furniture and the keys.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Having fun
Date – November 2006
There is a very serious aspect to much of the training we provide; for example, through our Conflict Management and Resolution courses (CMR) and Physical Intervention (PI) courses we examine how individuals can protect themselves from Workplace Violence.
But just because the subject matter is serious and very important, that does not mean that you can’t have fun in the process. We try and inject an aspect of fun into programmes. Candidates sometimes take it to the next level. Finding that a supported escort technique can easily result in two candidates carrying off a third raises a few eyebrows, before we return to the serious message in learning the technique.
We examine closely all the candidate feedback forms and regularly find that the way the trainers approach the courses makes the learning process easier by the introduction of fun and a very interactive approach.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Footwork
Date – November 2006
Understanding something as simple as a good solid stance, allows those attending our courses at Beyond The Blue to maintain balance when they find themselves in a situation where an aggressive confrontation may be possible.
Keeping your balance allows you to better control a situation and increase your own confidence when dealing with any situation.
From the outset of any of our courses we examine the very basics and get candidates to examine their own footwork in great detail. As subsequent techniques are demonstrated, we repeatedly stop half way through and ask candidates to once again examine their foot work to make sure the basics balance has been maintained.
Beyond The Blue provides training courses in a number of areas including; Conflict Management & Resolution (CMR), Physical Interventions (PI) and In-House Security Induction (IHSI).
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Group Work
Date – November 2006
Breaking into groups, candidates workshop topics to ensure a more positive learning experience. Monitored and mentored by our instructors they are given the opportunity to work with other candidates and develop ideas for themselves. These are then discussed with the group as a whole so that a positive and guided discussion and debate takes place, to reach the planned learning objective.
This interactive approach allows us to achieve our ultimate goal, of ensuring those attending our courses leave with the information and skills to work more safely and manage their working environment with more confidence.
For those attending our Conflict Management and Resolution courses (CMR), National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS), Physical Interventions (PI), portfolio of BIIAB Licensed Retail Sector Training and In-House Security Induction (IHSI) programmes, this approach also allows those attending to start thinking for themselves rather relying on direction from others.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Sitting Hook Restraint
Date – November 2006
Simple restraint techniques are demonstrated by our instructors and then candidates are given the opportunity to practice and experience how it feels to be on the other side of them.
Simplicity is one of our watch words at Beyond The Blue. There is simply no point in trying to teach techniques to individuals over the period of a few hours, that take professionals years to perfect. They will simply not be learned and will give candidates a false sense of security.
Martial arts form the basis to many personal safety courses, the trainers have had a life time of practice and can demonstrate the techniques and make them look easy, but for the candidates attending the course they go home and two days later can’t remember the complicated instructions they were given.
Our instructors also have years of experience and have spent years perfecting the techniques we teach. The big difference is that by concentrating on the technique itself we develop them to be effective, easy to teach and easy to learn. Above all we concentrate on making them easy to remember, so that when you really need to use one it comes back to you as second nature.
There can be no doubt as to how effective the sitting hook restraint is in stopping someone from getting up out of a chair and potentially attacking your friends, colleagues or one of your customers. It can be taught in only a few minutes, practised in 10 and perfected in 15 to 20 minutes.
As part of our Physical Interventions course (PI) we select the techniques most relevant to the clients need.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Warm up
Date – November 2006
Warming up as a group is a very important part of our health and safety assessment before we carry out any kind of physical activity. Our instructors will before any physical activity is undertaken carry out a risk assessment, identifying any existing injuries and briefing candidates on how to ensure they avoid injuries to themselves and others.
Beyond The Blue runs it courses only with the most thorough health & safety measures in place. The very nature of our low-impact techniques means that strength and force are not required to master them; therefore what can sometimes seem like simulated violence is actually only play acting with no actual strength being used. This philosophy means that injuries are highly unlikely and candidates are perfectly safe under our duty of care.
But despite all the precautions we take we still believe in a substantial warm-up and stretching programme to reduce the risks yet further.
The courses we run include; Physical Interventions (PI); Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR).
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Assist to ground
Date – November 2006
Beyond The Blue tailors its courses directly for specific clients. The technique of how to assist someone to ground in a low-impact manner to avoid injury and to maintain control, is used in areas where staff and individuals work in teams and may need to use extreme measures to restrain an individual in order to prevent further aggression or injury to themselves and others.
Our research prior to any course we run for a new client identifies the techniques that would be appropriate to teach those individuals. We do not simply duplicate courses from one client to another. Our trainers get the most satisfaction from providing a service that actually has a tangible benefit for those attending.
We will often follow up training courses, such as our Physical Interventions course, with refresher training when we can really identify the techniques that have been the most useful and concentrate on developing them further.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Consultancy meeting
Date – November 2006
Working with individuals on different section of your business allows us to gather appropriate information, meeting the client’s demands and objectives.
Consultancy Projects on many different subjects from Licensed Retail Sector to the Security Industry and Event Management can help or clients develop, review or revamp their business.
Beyond The Blue believes in helps businesses to develop and grow, to provide excellent customer service while expanding income. Working with staff at all levels, allows us to achieve the goals set by the management, shareholders or stakeholders.
Meeting key individuals, we research all the information we require, this can take the form of simple meetings, or our consultancy team actively observing systems and staff in the workplace. Once our recommendations are formulated they can be refined using focus groups and key individuals to ensure that not only will they help provide a positive step forward for your business or organisation, but they will also be successful as your staff will have had an important role in helping to develop the recommendations.
Consultancy projects can take many different forms and specialise in one particular area of your business or organisation or be overarching and cover all your operations.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Consultancy briefing
Date – November 2006
Consultancy briefings are held following projects to ensure that the client understand the reasons behind the recommendations and advice that we have made. We don’t believe that a project is complete with a simple report.
Just as we expect consultancy projects to involve your staff at all levels, from a senior management all the way to the front-line staff, we also present the conclusions of the project to all levels of staff. This involvement from start to finish means that there is ownership at every level and at each stage.
We do not believe in prescriptive recommendations and advice, we don’t have standard reports that we pass on to clients at the end of a project. Each one is different to the next and we look at the existing structures in your business, your systems and business plans; we reinforce those that are positive and successful and we review recommend changes to those that are underperforming. We research opinion from your own staff and that of your customers; this allows us to make realistic and responsible recommendations. This approach makes implementation of recommendations, work from the top down and the bottom up; this results in the implementation phase being smooth and without the need for a dictatorial approach.
Beyond The Blue can help your organisation with Consultancy Projects in many areas. We specialise in the Licensed Retail Sector, Security Industry and Event Management and can refocus your business, revamp it, prepare you for starting a new business or expanding an existing one.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Wrist grip
Date – October 2006
The wrist grip is often one of the first signs that a situation or argument is changing from a verbal stage to a more physical one. It is at this stage that often even the slightest wrong move or wrong word can dramatically escalate matters.
The natural reaction to an aggressive party grabbing your wrist is to wrestle it free, but unfortunately this demonstration of force more often then not leads to further force being used by the agressor. This struggle can lead on to further aggression before you even realise what is happening.
At Beyond The Blue we teach techniques that help you to remove yourself from this grip without struggling and often almost without the person who grabbed you even knowing. The calm nature of this and our other ‘low-impact’ disengagement techniques, means that you don’t trigger the natural responses in an aggressor that can escalate a situation. This approach gives you the space and time to practice the non physical techniques and communication skills we teach you in our Conflict Management and Resolution course (CMR).
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Personal safety training
Date – October 2006
Effective learning is possible through the use of simple rules and at Beyond The Blue we follow these strictly. Our aim when running a training course is effective learning and positive outcomes for those attending.
Our first rule is group sizes; we adhere to strict guidelines that we have set out, to ensure that groups are not too large and that the dilution of learning does not occur as a result. Where clients demand that numbers be at the top end of our limits, we often send in more then one instructor to run the course. This ensures that where required, scenario based learning and group work can still be undertaken with sufficient supervision provided.
This approach also allows us, to have greater control over the practice and perfection of physical intervention and personal safety techniques.
These strict guidelines are applied to all our training courses; the portfolio of BIIAB Licensed Retail Sector courses; National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS); Conflict Management & Resolution (CMR); In-House Security Induction (IHSI); and Fire Safety (FS).
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Active participation
Date – October 2006
At Beyond The Blue we like to invite those attending our courses to participate fully in the training they are being given. We encourage candidates to provide us with their experiences in order to consider ways to resolve situations that they may have come across in the past, in a more constructive manner.
Sometimes the process of involving individuals is not one that is welcomed at first by the candidates themselves. The natural reaction people have when a group is asked for a volunteer, is to shrink into their chair. But candidates soon learn that our courses rely on them playing a full part in process, for them to gain the maximum benefit from the time we have with them. After the initial shyness we often find that we have too many volunteers, but we always try and ensure that everyone gets a chance.
By demonstrating techniques and providing facilities for the group to break down into smaller groups and workshop certain subject matter, everyone feels part of the session and start to enjoy the process of learning. This approach is taken in all our courses and candidates benefit from the involvement they have. Courses we run include; portfolio of BIIAB Licensed Retail Sector courses; Conflict Management & Resolution (CMR), In-House Security Induction (IHSI), National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS), and Fire Safety (FS)
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Conflict Management & Resolution training
Date – October 2006
Scenario based learning allows those attending to gain a more realistic visualisation of the type of situations they may encounter and how they might approach and resolve those they face.
In this example taken form our Conflict Management and Resolution course (CMR), one of our instructors along with a small group of minibus drivers who operate primarily at night time (driving revellers to and from venues), examine a ‘common’ situation where they discover and individual collapsed / asleep in the back of their vehicle.
The situation seems innocent enough and is one that they encounter in their day to day (night to night) role as a driver. It is one that they have all had to deal with. As with most situations, the straightforward approach works on most occasions. We examine the signs and signals that can tell when it might be advisable to approach with more caution and how to act in a manner where the drivers own personal safety is maintained and risk reduced.
This example of how Conflict Management and Resolution training can be applied to various different sectors, indicates the versatility of both the course itself and the trainers presenting it. We currently do not have trainer who come from bus driving background, but thorough a training needs analysis we present the course with relevance to those candidates attending. At Beyond The Blue we go the extra mile, we took the time in this case to spend a night in the bus with the driver to get a first hand look at what problems they faced, this made our preparation for the course as complete as it could be.
We pride ourselves on our professionalism and we reflect this to candidates attending our courses. This allows them to understand how acting professionally can solve many of the problems and dangers they may encounter in the course of their employment.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Induction Training
Date – October 2006
During the process of preparing for In-House Security Induction course (IHSI) we always explore the possibility of using experienced individuals from within your own staff body if. By approaching staff on a supervisory / management level or with specific skills or knowledge and finding sessions that will be appropriate to their knowledge base, we provide staff with some ownership of the training provided and help them gain vital new skills and experience.
In order to ensure that the quality of the training provided by in-house trainers meets the high standards of Beyond The Blue, we provide comprehensive guidance notes and briefings to those chosen to present these sessions. We then ensure that experienced Beyond The Blue Instructors are on hand to provide support and answer question that may require their additional experience.
This approach is not always suitable to all our clients, but the empowerment that this approach can provide to some of your employees is an additional benefits to the core of the training we provide.
At Beyond The Blue we approach every new client differently to ensure we meet their specific needs.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Recovery position
Date – October 2006
Simple techniques such as learning the recovery position can give individuals the confidence to deal with situations and stabilise victims of many different ailments from alcohol intoxication to unconsciousness. This technique can help ensure the safety of a victim while more experienced and qualified help arrives.
Either as part of a First Aid Course or on a more general level through our In-House Security Induction course (IHSI), this technique is a key skill. Understanding not only the technique and how to execute it, but also the reasons behind employing it and when it is appropriate and safe to do so, candidates on our courses at Beyond The Blue get ample opportunity to practise on each other. The experience of how it feels to be put into the recovery position gives them a better understanding on how a victim may react to this practise being used on them.
First Aid is a basic skill for employees; it allows them to ensure the safety of colleagues and customers; avoiding escalation of existing injuries and conditions and save lives.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Pit lift
Date – October 2006
The Pit Lift is a standard technique to allow staff working in a pit area (the area in front of a stage) to help remove those being crushed or unable to remove themselves from the front of a crowd, to be evacuated and where required receive the appropriate medical care.
Traditionally the pit area has been the exclusive domain of the most physically strong staff and although there is some merit in the area being staffed by physically capable individuals, we believe that this approach restricts the flexibility within your team, by limiting those that are trained in the key skills.
As part of our In-House Security Induction courses (IHSI) that are tailored to meet the specific needs of our clients, we train in-house teams on specific techniques required to ensure the safety of the customers. By training all staff, in all techniques, the team share skills so that the client has the capability to move staff about into different areas. This provides the employer with more flexibility allowing them to be more cost effective with staffing levels.
Beyond The Blue has experience of working with clients from a variety of backgrounds and tailors courses to meet their needs, that of the demographic they serve and the staff employed.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Peter Mayhew
Title – Pimms & Champagne Bar
Date – June 2006
The licensed retail sector and the entertainment industry are some of the most image conscious areas to work in. 20 years ago you could throw hay bails and cheap beer at customers and you would not hear a murmur.
Today Beyond The Blue clearly understands that the product can almost become secondary to the image or brand presented. We realise that staff involvement from the outset is vital so they understand the concept and participate in it. A Pimm’s & Champagne Bar can not rely simply on the sale of Pimm’s and Champagne to promote itself, it has to be a brand itself to draw people in, before actually selling them the product. One without the other simply does not function.
When we Manage Events for our clients or provide them with Event Bars, we do extensive research to identify the image which is going to present the highest returns and generate the greatest customer satisfaction.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
Image – Ian Stephen
