What the new 2027 SIA security training syllabus tells us about the future

Strictly speaking, there is no new 2027 SIA security training syllabus.

Not yet.

What the Security Industry Authority published on 28 August was a consultation on proposed changes to its licence-linked qualifications, with the final specifications expected in winter 2026 and new qualifications due to launch later in 2027.

But sometimes a draft tells you more than the finished document…

If you want to understand what a job really involves, don’t read the job description. Read what people are being trained to deal with.

And the proposed new SIA security training requirements make for interesting reading.

Counter-terrorism. First aid. Spiking. Drug use. Searching mobility devices. Communication skills. Social-media auditors. Drones.

It is less a list of things traditionally associated with a security operations and more the packing list for someone expecting an unusually difficult weekend.

Yet there is a serious point behind the variety.

The SIA isn’t simply updating a syllabus. It is documenting how much the job has already changed.

That matters because training specifications do not evolve in a vacuum. They evolve because the environment outside the classroom has changed.

Twenty years ago, the popular caricature of private security was relatively easy to understand.

Protect the building. Watch the entrance. Patrol the site. Deal with anybody who shouldn’t be there.

None of those things has disappeared. They have simply acquired a rather large number of housemates.

Today’s security operative might be expected to recognise suspicious behaviour, manage conflict, assist somebody who has been spiked, respond to a medical emergency, understand counter-terrorism procedures, interact with vulnerable people, preserve evidence and make decisions about unusual activity being captured and broadcast live on social media.

The perimeter hasn’t necessarily become bigger.

The number of things that can happen inside it has.

That moves first aid out of the category of useful certificate kept somewhere in a folder and into something much closer to an occupational requirement.

The SIA is therefore consulting on whether door supervisors, security guards and close-protection operatives should be required to maintain a valid first-aid qualification as an ongoing condition of their licence. It is also proposing a security-specific first-aid qualification more closely aligned with the incidents operatives are likely to encounter.

This is an interesting shift in how we should think about frontline security.

A security officer is frequently employed because something might happen; a medical incident, a fight, someone collapses or an alarm activates.

And when it does, the security officer is often one of the few people already standing there.

It turns out that proximity is a surprisingly valuable qualification.

But much of frontline security happens in the awkward few seconds before something becomes an incident.

Explaining. De-escalating. Questioning. Reassuring. Challenging.

Knowing when somebody is confused, intoxicated, frightened, aggressive or vulnerable — and responding differently to each.

The proposed syllabus reflects this more complicated human environment.

Spiking awareness, currently included within door-supervision and close-protection training, could be extended to security guarding and CCTV operators. There is proposed content covering drug use, improved approaches to searching wheelchairs and mobility devices, and dealing with social-media “auditing” activity.

That last one might sound unusually niche. It isn’t.

In September, The Independent reported concerns in Newcastle about self-described social-media “auditors” filming people and organisations in public spaces, sometimes deliberately provoking reactions to create online content.

For the security officer confronted by someone filming an entrance, challenging staff and hoping for precisely the wrong reaction, knowing the difference between suspicious activity, lawful behaviour and deliberate provocation matters.

Add renewed counter-terrorism content and awareness of Martyn’s Law, and the picture becomes broader still. The SIA is preparing simultaneously for new licence-linked qualifications and for its expanded role regulating publicly accessible premises and events under Martyn’s Law, which is expected to come into force in spring 2027. Its own strategic plan estimates around 179,000 premises and events could fall within scope.

Read the SIA’s 2026–2029 strategic plan summary

The connection is important.

Security is moving steadily away from being defined solely by protecting property.

Increasingly, it is about recognising risk, protecting people and knowing what to do when normal security operations suddenly stop being normal.