The Learning Curve

May 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Stephanie Silk

How can you be assured that the licensed repairman and electricians who are hired to maintain and fix everyday issues are as experienced as you would like? Today, licensing bodies in a number of fields impose continuing education requirements as part of maintaining professional credentials.

For the security industry, this continuing education is thanks in part to CMOOR, Louisville, Ky. CMOOR provides the security, construction, manufacturing and low-voltage electronics industries with customized, turnkey eLearning solutions. They offer a full Learning Management System (LMS) solution, technical support for all users and a marketing program to promote the launch and usage of new online programs. And after years of research, CMOOR has developed a strong expertise in continuing education (CEU). They now coach supplier companies on how best to position their courses for CEU accreditation and on which professional and technical development credits will best serve them in the industry by working directly with the certifying agencies. CMOOR developed a continuing education portal for the security industry, SecurityCEU.com.

CMOOR started this service because they found through their research that if they could go through the steps of finding course approval and accreditation for other companies, they would cut out the time-consuming job for their client. Connie Moorhead, president of the CMOOR group, says there are two reasons why continuing education is so important to security: licensing and certification. “The security industry is riddled with certification. Each alarm technician, each installer has licensing requirements depending on the state. Because they are required, CEU's are one of the biggest thorns in people's sides. They want to get it done fast and inexpensively,” Moorhead says.

Ninety percent of CMOOR's business is security education, which is why they were so willing to provide this service. “We only serve the security industry. Being able to play ball in this vertical market has been huge for us. We know so much about the different agencies, from state to state and down to local. We know who plays ball with what topic. I think that is why we can do this,” Moorhead says.

Moorhead explains that the actual steps to getting approval are not the issue — it's the time it takes for a company to reach the right person. “That's where it can be tricky. Who are you trying to get it approved for? Electricians? Alarm licensing? Then you figure out whom to contact. State chapter? Fire Alarm Association? It's a very large recordkeeping task. We have to keep updating, mostly annual and bi-annually — it's a lot of pre-work.”

The CEU requirements are intended to encourage professionals to maintain their training and stay up-to-date on new developments. Integral Technologies Inc., Indianapolis, a worldwide provider of scalable IT security solutions, has jumped on the CEU bandwagon with its new DigitalSENTRY Certified Technician course and its Intelli-M course. Jeff Roach, training manager for Integral Technologies, is proud of the credibility value that the CEU program has given Integral. “Maintaining current knowledge in any industry nowadays is crucial. These CEU's add credibility to our technicians, and there is a new value with what they are doing. Plus, it adds a level of value to dealer organizations who are interested.”

If a technician takes a course with a CEU benefit, the credits he or she earns will then enhance or extend his or her current level of certification. Integral's particular courses that have CEU benefits are based on two products: DigitalSENTRY, a video product, and Intelli-M, an access control product. Participants can either take an instructor-led course, or an online re-certification course that has to be taken annually to maintain certification to sell the product. Depending on the course, the required work varies. “With DigitalSENTRY there is final written test as well as a hands-on assessment. On Intelli-M there are four assessments and additional hands on activity. Technicians are usually more “hands-on” guys,” Roach says.

After receiving requests from technicians and customers, Integral looked into offering a CEU program to its previously existing online and instructor-led courses because of the competence that they want their employees to have — and the customer service their customers are looking for. “Our technicians are gaining a good knowledge basis to work from. If they take advantage of a CEU to go toward some type of certification, it establishes credibility. Now, when the dealer has five accredited technicians, it's a direct reflection of us,” Roach says.

When Integral's training managers started looking into using CEU's, they didn't know where to start. But after Roach did some searching on the Internet, he found CMOOR and was confident they could take care of it. And CMOOR banks on people like Roach who are looking for help. “What we do is not rocket science. We took a couple years to really look at information, look at databases of what can be approved and then consolidated our knowledge. You can compare it to woodworking or crafts or cooking: you can do it yourself — but you won't,” says Moorhead.

Roach has no qualms about expressing the importance of continuing education in an industry like security, where he sees about 20-25 percent of employees taking advantage of the CEU program, especially taking into account IT's place in the world of security. “For years, certification has been an integral part of skills development and validation for IT engineers and technicians. As the security and IT industries continue to converge, it makes sense that security professionals look to the best practices of the IT industry in developing processes and programs that bring greater value to security end users.”

CMOOR finds approval for about 30 different companies across North America currently, but ever since it has become a full service for them, they have been seeing companies jump on the opportunity. And Moorhead is confident that the security industry will only progress by using CEU's. “Full-service continuing education is simply a requirement that has to be done — and we can efficiently navigate CEU waters for our clients.”

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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