The end of Clarke's tenure at the industry's National Training Organisation (NTO) after 14 years at the helm was announced in an official press release to the security trade journals circulated on Monday 14 October, which stated that the parting "is by mutual agreement".
The statement, issued by the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), paid tribute to Clarke's achievements, rounding on his "substantial contribution to the growth and development" of SITO since the late 1980s.
In an exclusive interview with Security Management Today, Clarke listed what he feels to be SITO's major achievements of the past decade. "SITO has played a major part in raising the standard of training provision in the security industry," opined Clarke. "Back in the late 1980s there were no set training standards, but since then we've issued 200,000 qualifications. That's a great achievement."
Clarke feels that his main task was to put the right infrastructures in place for the industry. "One of the key achievements was our decision to build-in company capability by training the trainers and providing standardised learning resource materials," said Clarke. It was this move that helped to boost security officer training.
"SITO has been criticised for a lack of emphasis on systems training, but the organisation is now at a stage where there's a higher intake of apprentices than ever before."
Clarke looks back on his time as chief executive with a great deal of pride. He believes the organisation has been "a pioneer", offering "much new thinking" within the NTO movement. "Most NTO's," added Clarke, "have had an average of 11 or 12 employees, whereas SITO is now up to 35. It's a highly visible NTO," stressed Clarke. "A survey showed that 93% of the industry knows SITO and what the organisation stands for. For most other NTO's their industry recognition would be around the 30% mark."
SITO has also been maligned for having a commercial approach, but Clarke feels there's no other way in which the organisation could have flourished. "Most other NTOs have shed jobs or folded completely because of the badly-managed transition to Sector Skills Council status," suggested Clarke. "SITO has survived because it is a financially viable and robust organisation built on a very sound commercial footing."
Clarke is keen to praise former BSIA chief executive David Fletcher, who was extremely supportive of SITO. "David allowed us to function as an independent body under the BSIA umbrella," suggested Clarke. "This meant that we could engage with a great many organisations and individuals, and be seen to be the training body for the industry as opposed to a training body for the Association."
The outgoing SITO chief is also extremely proud of SITO's great achievementas in 1998 and 2000, when the organisation was bestowed with Business Excellence Awards by Midlands Excellence. Proof-positive in Clarke's eyes that SITO has always placed its major focus on meeting customer requirements. "We had to be seen to lead by example, and we did," he added.
SITO has done much, of course, to change the shape of vocational education in the security sector. The NTO has always held clear views on where the national training agenda should be heading, and as a result has attracted more company funding than any other NTO.
Clarke remains disappointed that S5C was unable to seek Sector Skills Council (SSC) approval due to "circumstances outside of SITO's control". Clarke told SMT: "Had the bid gone ahead, the security industry would have been the key player in one of the most influential SSCs in the country."
Source
SMT
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