Showing Resilience in the Face of Adversity

So, what did the COVID pandemic bring to the Linx International Group as we reach the one-year anniversary of moving into COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns?

I want to take a little time to ponder on exactly how the Group has worked its way through a very difficult trading period. In March 2020, our group, along with thousands of other companies and organisations, was staring down the barrel of a gun.

If we look at our portfolios across our constituent companies –  from Tavcom Training to PerpetuityARC Training and also Linx Consulting, they are all heavily reliant on our international client base, be that clients coming to the UK for training or us sending our tutors across the UK and internationally to deliver training and conduct consultancy projects.

The word resilience has been used a lot over this last year – along with other now-cliched phrases such as flexibility, agility and preparedness. On a very basic level, we were able to transfer our systems and databases to facilitate working from home. This worked extremely well and there were very few (if any) hiccups for our team. We were able to continue providing exceptional service to our learners and clients and ensured support was maintained on distance learning programmes such as The Security Institute’s Level 3 Certificate and the Level 5 Diploma in Security Risk Management. Indeed, we re-launched our Masters programme in International Security and Risk Management, with our first cohort starting in February 2021.

Additionally, we developed a wide range of BTEC-accredited virtual training courses delivered live via Zoom. These included Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management, Workplace Investigations and Interviewing, CCTV System Design and Planning, Security Consultancy and Intruder Alarm System Design, as well as ASIS International CPP and PSP courses.

Maintaining our service levels is a credit to the resilience and agility of the Linx Group team – outstanding teamwork and dedication. It is these qualities that are the reason we, as a Group, are in a positive situation as we close out 2021 FY.

Indeed, the resilience of our clients has also been exceptional – I take my hat off to those organisations that have made a point of ensuring their staff continue to gain knowledge, continue to train in order to develop their personnel. Our range of courses readily supports those looking for specific knowledge to develop their perhaps new, or widened, areas of responsibility. Organisations have realised the need for knowledge-uplift as opposed to putting development and training on the back burner for want of cost savings. The savvier organisations (and individuals) are seeing this period as a time to upskill and have engaged with our portfolio of technical security and security management courses at the operational, tactical and strategic levels.

And what are we are looking forward to in 2021?

Building on the new ways of delivering training and the flexibility we can offer, we are working on a range of brand new courses that are designed for the challenges that security professionals face today, preparing them for what is ahead.

We aim to maintain the momentum we have as a Group in terms of our training delivery and are very much looking forward to seeing our learners in person just as soon as we can.

 

Special thanks to the Security Journal for asking us to contribute. The full magazine can be found on their website here.