Advice on Training & Education

[800800]

Howdy- new member, and my first post!

I'm looking for advice on where to take my training and education.
I'm a security guard with 4 years of experience, with some on-the-side training (firearms, private investigations, provincial offenses and municipal bylaw). At one point, I did consider an LEO career path, and even wrote the CBSA exam, which I passed but was never contacted to continue.
Ideally, I'd like to get into Emergency and Disaster Management. I know there are formal diplomas I can get for this, as well as online courses.

What it all boils down to are the following questions-

1) Which training path do I take? The expensive one, that would require attending a physical college and getting a diploma (which may be difficult because I'm a minimum wage security guard), or do some reasonably priced online courses in Emergency & Conflict Management, Crisis Intervention, etc.?

2) Does my experience in Security count for ANYTHING? Because, I'm getting the feeling that the longer I stay, that not only is it harder to get out, but that the past four years means nothing in the eyes of a recruiter or Human Resources personnel. What could I get into (job wise) that will help me?

Sorry for the long first post.

[Herb Powell]

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[kaniff]

I wont comment on anything other than if you are looking for emergency management education, the Justice Institute of British Columbia offers a Bachelors Degree and diploma entirely online in Emergency and Security Management ( http://www.jibc.ca/programs-courses/schools-departments/school-public-safety-security/emergency-management-division/academic-programs/bachelor-emergency-security-management ) and were actually advertising on the forum for a while which is where I was made aware.

[PHB]

This question pops up quite a bit here on the applicants page. The path to policing is unique as the individual itself. You need to figure out what works best for you and the agency your applying for. There is no guaranteed path to the job. The advice I always give is have a backup just incase policing doesn't work out. For whatever reason if you can't get hired for a medical reason etc.. you wont be totally fucked. Also look to head west where agencies are hiring.

[GPZ]

If I read your post correctly, you aren't interested in becoming a cop, but you want to get into Emergency/Disaster Management. That field has very little to do with policing. Have you researched that career at all, or have I misread something?

[el_prez]

As per what GPZ said, you might want to look at some Emergency Measures sites for the various provinces. That kind of stuff doesn't really have much to do with policing, hence why they are their own organizations.

[800800]

Thanks for the link kaniff! Much appreciated.

@GPZ- Not really, no. I wouldn't say no to it, but just not front line policing- moreso investigations and criminal analysis. A friend of a friend works for the OPP, and she told me to get into those kind of positions that you need to be an LEO first.

Honestly- I'm more of an office/paperwork kind of guy- so long as I'm doing it to help people. I get a strange rush when filing incident reports, forwarding reports to the manager, and relaying information manager to guard. I figure Emergency & Disaster Management is right up my alley, because its the management side of things, that could potentially move me up to a Security Manager position, or work as an consulting manager for large corporations and municipalities.

If anyone else has any other suggestions, however, I'm all ears. I'm here to learn.

[basketcase]

If you don't want to be a front line cop, don't bother applying. It can take many years before you get into an investigations only spot.

[PHB]

If you don't want to be a front line cop, don't bother applying. It can take many years before you get into an investigations only spot.

I will second this excellent post. There are enough guys that don't want to be on the street. Lots of jobs for people that like office work.

[Bauer]

If you don't want to be a front line cop, don't bother applying. It can take many years before you get into an investigations only spot.

I will second this excellent post. There are enough guys that don't want to be on the street. Lots of jobs for people that like office work.

A bit too many in my opinion.