Projects and Standards

As part of EU Funding for the strengthening of Social Dialogue, CoESS and UNI Europa have been awarded a grant from the European Commission to launch a project on “INTEL: Skills Intelligence for the Private Security Sector”. 

Running from 2021 to 2023, INTEL will take stock of the current situation of labour and skills shortages in the private security sector across EU Member States, provide intelligence on future skills requirements, and deliver solutions to empower national Social Partners, businesses and workers in anticipating and managing this important challenge in terms of re- and upskilling solutions, career pathways and inclusive training systems.

The INTEL project will play an important role in delivering on priorities related to “Education and Training” of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Work Programme 2020-2021 for Private Security, and will be a direct follow-up to the “Anticipating, Preparing and Managing Employment Change in the Private Security Industry” study – an EU-funded Social Dialogue project, which CoESS and UNI Europa jointly concluded in October 2018. By delivering skills intelligence, INTEL will tie in with the study’s recommendations for actions in Social Dialogue to address current and future skills needs in the sector.

As the first deliverable of the project, CoESS and UNI Europa will in 2021 launch an EU-wide survey on the current extent of labour and skills shortages in the private security services. Also, a Social Partner Specialist Group on Skills Intelligence has been established, consisting of:

  • Rene Hiemstra, Director, G4S Netherlands
  • Alicia Gómez De Hinojosa Guerrero, National Head of Talent Management, Securitas Spain
  • Siegfried Hüsgen, Head of the Securitas Academy and Lead auditor for BDSW-certified security schools, Germany
  • Jelena Milos, UNI Europa and Policy expert
  • David Gigg, GMB and chairperson of G4S EWC
  • L. Miguel Pereira Fernandes, UGT-SITESE union in Portugal and Securitas EWC

The Specialist Group will meet with leading private security experts from across Europe, but also public authorities, EU institutions, training experts and agencies, as well as technology providers and client stakeholders, in order to discuss key drivers of employment change in the private security sector; a widened spectrum of private security tasks and client expectations; respective new skills requirements for private security workers; and, most importantly, solutions for both businesses and workers in terms of re- and upskilling, new job profiles and career pathways, the strengthening of Social Partners, and the need for the support of public authorities for more inclusive vocational education and training systems.

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash