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A Decade of Academy Success
» » JUST LIKE THE LOCKSMITH JOURNAL,
the Abloy Academy is commemorating its
tenth birthday this year. To celebrate, Pat
Jefferies, Commercial Director at Abloy UK,
discusses the Academy’s rise to success.
Abloy UK has a strong reputation for
producing security solutions of superior
quality, but as a company, we recognise
that the high performance of our products
can only be realised by the abilities of the
people who specify and install them.
With this in mind, we developed the
Abloy Academy to provide training of the
highest standard, and the Academy brand
has gone from strength to strength in the
last decade to be widely is recognised as a
mark of excellence and accreditation.
The Academy was established a
decade ago through aspirations to
develop training of end-users and major
businesses to elevate overall awareness of
compliance. We’ve grown from class sizes
of around six people, to now hosting one-
off conferences for over 150.
The course leaders do not just teach –
they are also pivotal in the development
and improvement of new standards and
legislation across Europe, working with
the British Standards Institute (BSI) and
European Committee for Standardisation
(CEN).
As legislation is constantly evolving,
the need to educate the industry is
always present, and the development
of standards means emergency escape
access control specifiers must continue to
refresh their knowledge.
ACADEMY COURSES
Academy certification gives reassurance
of a person’s competence and specialist
product understanding to provide
industry leading solutions. The two core
courses offered at the Academy are the
Foundations and Foundations Plus,
teaching European and British Standards
in detail, to help ensure attendees only
specify compliant solutions.
The Foundations course covers the
majority of standards applicable to door
sets - from hinges to door selectors - and
helps delegates to understand the needs
of a door, from its location within the
building to the purpose the door must
fulfil.
It also covers areas such as minimum
performance standards, Dynamic
Lockdown and the Constructions Product
Regulations, and is presented in easy
to understand terms. In addition, there
is a focus on the locking and escape
requirements for access control electric
locking in both retrofit and new build
applications, ensuring a safe and secure
solution.
FOUNDATIONS PLUS
For individuals who complete the first
course, the Foundation Plus course is an
advanced add-on, going one step further in
educating delegates on in depth industry
standards and compliance terminology.
This provides attendees with the knowledge
to specify products that are suitable for
both the application and door type.
Courses are held at the Abloy UK
headquarters in Willenhall and are
free of charge, offering delegates a
complimentary educational experience
that can provide CPD points and two years
validity on industry standards.
Although we have hosted larger events,
for our standard courses we like to
keep class sizes between 15-20 to allow
attendees to participate and ask questions
where appropriate.
FORWARD THINKING
The future is bright for the Academy,
with a number of exciting plans in the
pipeline for 2019 and beyond. We always
welcome back course attendees who wish
to develop their knowledge and skills,
and notify past delegates if a particular
regulation is updated with an invitation to
a refresher course.
To keep up with the increasing demand
and grow the current offering, we’re
looking to host more events across the
year. We are also planning to add to the
syllabus with more product-led courses to
coincide with the changing industry and
new performance standards.
Ultimately, this isn’t just about
conforming to standards for the sake of it
– lives are put at risk when an emergency
escape system is not complaint. Through
teaching at the Academy, I can sleep
comfortably at night, knowing that I have
done my part to help people safely escape
from a building if they need to.
For further information on products and
services available from Abloy UK or to
book a place on one of the courses, visit
https://bit.ly/2RoY8Va or call 01902 364
500, or email [email protected]
LOCKSMITHJOURNAL.CO.UK | JAN/FEB 2019