Entrepreneur looks to the future

INTERVIEW

This month, the security industry got a boost for future stability with the news that The Banks Foundation has been set up to identify and support the next generation of entrepreneurs in the sector. Here, we talk to the man behind the scheme

It was announced in October that The British Security Industry Association’s (BSIA) wholly owned subsidiary, Skills for Security, had sold part of its share equity to The Banks Foundation (TBF). With a 49.9% share in Skills for Security, TBF aims to allocate generated income to activities that are centred around young entrepreneurs which encourage and advance their careers, training, salaries and seed-fund start-ups.

TBF was set up by entrepreneur and founder of CSL Group, Simon Banks, a long-standing advocate of supporting and mentoring young people into the IoT, Security and electrotechnical sectors. TBF is not-for-profit and is a family foundation, designed to enable Simon to give something back after a lifetime career, and a successful one at that, in the security industry.

Under the new ownership, employees of the training body will also become shareholders of Skills for Security.

On the announcement of the news, Simon Banks, founder of TBF, said: “I’m passionate about helping young people realise their potential, whether through apprenticeships or entrepreneurship or both. TBF provides an important boost for young enterprise – these are people that have something that you can’t teach and may ordinarily miss the opportunity to demonstrate their extra-curriculum abilities. By creating wealth in our sector, we will ensure we attract the very best talent and move the security sector forward, benefiting the entire value chain.”

Also speaking at the time, David Scott, Managing Director, Skills for Security, said: “This is such a positive step that will allow us to scale-up our training operations nationally. We are well used to Simon’s involvement as he’s been Chairman for some time.

“Critical to the investment was to ensure our employees are all shareholders, something that Simon introduced into CSL some twenty years ago; this is massively important for morale as we grow and means that the team will be focused on the same goals whilst sharing in the financial rewards.”

To find out more about the entrepreneur scheme and why it is fundamental for the future of the security sector, PSI caught up with Simon Banks:

Why did you set up TBF and what are its goals? The Foundation is all about getting talented young people into our industry in order to create wealth. The entrepreneurs in our industry create jobs, wealth and a value stream for everybody in the sector and we believe that we need more people like that to help create opportunities and innovation. We have started this journey with fourteen schools and colleges to identify the next generation of talented people that can help the entire security sector thrive. Funnily enough it's not always those students that shine academically at school that are the ones we think will be most suited to achieve with the Foundation. Just because you don't fit in with the academic curriculum of a school doesn't mean you are not bright and have the right mindset and drive to be an entrepreneur.

How are you working with schools? We are giving 700 children £1 and asking them to turn it into £10 by using a number of different avenues. These could include buying an item for £1 and selling it for profit and then repeating the process or they could use the money to buy a bucket and a sponge and wash cars, but

INTERVIEW

the essential point is, we do not tell them how to make the money, they must come up with the idea themselves and then execute it. This is not an original initiative it is just a tried and tested method for finding people with a talent that cannot be taught in a standard school curriculum. This is something that bolts onto the existing curriculum and is designed to be thought-provoking and to identify the people we want.

What happens then? We are running the programme from October 2022 to March 2023 to see how well the students can do before placing the best performers into jobs or on a path of further education that more suits where their talents will be most developed. For example our logo was designed following a competition between college students and some of the ideas suggest that careers in marketing would be ideal for those that took part.

The Banks Foundation will be like sponsors for the students in that we will provide the money and work with them to pay for any training or education that is required to get the best people into the security industry. It may be that we speak to brands like Hikvision or Texecom for example about a placement for one of the stars maybe as a BDM or in marketing or sales where they can pick up skills that can be nurtured by the employer. And this is what I want from people in the sector - I don't want money, I want their support in the form of offering a position for the next generation in order to develop the talent they have which may not be an academic strength.

If I can go to a company and say, “I have someone here who I think will fit in really well with your team and has a lot to offer” I hope that will be met with a positive response whoever the company might be.

Where does the SfS purchase fi t in? Skills for Security is doing a fantastic job and is doing very well financially which is why I've invested in it. The money that is made from this will be used to fund TBF. We are not a charity; we are all about profit because the more profit we have the more we can spend on good causes. If there are security companies out there that want to work with us, we just need them to offer opportunities; we're not looking for financial support of any kind.

Why is Simon Banks doing this? To be honest I was that person that didn't like the academic structure of education. Early on, I was very lucky to meet some people who were willing to give me a chance in this sector and I want TBF to be a vehicle that identifies talent and supports future entrepreneurs on their journey. It is different to the work of SfS, which is all about training apprentices, we really need that engineering skills pipeline too, but TBF is about finding the right type of person with the right attitude to growing the business side of security. If we don't have talent coming through then everyone in the security chain loses out. I want to leave a legacy that fixes the huge problems we face; the engineer skills gap with SfS and the business talent gap with TBF.

What are the long term plans for TBF and SfS? We need to have the programmes working on a national scale. I said very early on with the work we do with apprentice training we have to recognise that London-based installation companies are not going to send their apprentices to Birmingham so we are addressing that with new training centres at selected locations. We currently have 550 apprentices on programmes with SfS and want that to reach 2000 within the next two to three years. We will achieve that by bringing the training to the installers and making the process much more convenient. The great thing is that the engineers we are producing are really very good and they are bringing new talents to the sector specifically with regard to their familiarity with using networks, apps, smartphones and IT systems.

At the end of the day, our industry protects lives and property and we have to carry out that role in the most professional way that we can. We cannot be relying on cheap, self-install systems to look after our people and assets. The professional security industry is a timehonoured profession and when we really need protection and security that is what we must be in a position to be able to provide. If we are to have a professional, high quality security installation sector in the future then we need to find and support the next generation of entrepreneurs as well as fully-trained engineers. www.psimagazine.co.uk