SIA's popular Train-the-Trainer course back this fall

MONROE, La.—A new security industry venture, Central Station University, is bringing back a popular training program that was last offered in 2009. Interested central station managers will be able to take the SIA-APCO Central Station Operator Instructor (CSOI) Course—more popularly known as the Train-the-Trainer course—in both Costa Mesa, Calif. and Orlando, Fla. from Sept. 12-16.

Security Systems News did a special report on central station training earlier this year and noted that the course was missed and was in the shop for revision.

Alarm Monitoring Services owner and CFO Dera DeRoche-Jolet is the owner and president of Central Station University, which in 2011 signed an agreement to revise and further develop the SIA-APCO Instructor and Operator courses. CSU is now the exclusive provider of these courses, according to a release from CSU.

DeRoche-Jolet is certified as an instructor by the Electronic Security Association's National Training School and has been a national instructor for SIA since 1995.

"The biggest challenge for managers is consistency. Train-the-Trainer provides consistency in hiring trainable employees, training them to be quality operators, and developing continuing education to maintain that quality," DeRoche-Jolet told SSN. "Plus, the SIA-APCO courses have a strong reputation in our industry. Our work with state regulators will build that recognition even further for all the central stations that use this training."

CSU general manager Sean Rockhold said the revised course is an improvement over the last permutation and offers something for just about everyone.

"We are teaching a new revision which has not previously been offered. Dera was on the SIA committee that oversaw creation of the courses originally, and she has been a national instructor for the courses since the beginning. She was also part of the SIA group that created the revision we will be teaching," Rockhold said. "These courses are most appropriate for security central stations, either third-party or self-monitoring. But Dera and the other instructors have many stories of non-security central stations who have sent managers to the CSOI on repeat occasions because they have been able to successfully adapt it to non-security applications."

Additional CSOI course dates and locations as well as additional offerings from CSU will be released on an ongoing basis.