Security Licence QLD - How To Become A Security Guard
Table of Contents
With a security licence, you can take paid work as the trained professional that staff and the public look to when their safety is at risk. Across Australia, 66,800 people work as security officers and guards on median weekly earnings of $1,818, with 22% of them on part-time hours. Once licensed, you can pursue a full-time career in security or fit the work around study, family, or another job.
What Is A Security Licence?
A security licence is a government-issued permit to perform security work for pay. Each state and territory government issues its own through a regulator, the agency responsible for licensing security staff there. Security guards and crowd controllers must be licensed before they start working in the security industry.
Training Requirements For A Security Licence
Licensing officers compare the training certificates in your security licence application with the qualifications and providers their state or territory recognises. They only accept certificates from those providers.
Unarmed security officers and crowd controllers train for the CPP20218 Certificate II in Security Operations. It is made up of 14 units, each covering a skill that assessment requires you to demonstrate. Registered training organisations (RTOs) deliver and assess it under approval from a government training regulator. Its units cover both guarding and crowd control, including patrolling premises, screening entry, managing intoxicated patrons, first aid training, and removing a person from a venue. With all 14 completed, you can apply for an unarmed security officer licence, a crowd controller licence, or both.
Lodging Your Security Licence Application
Before granting a security licence, licensing officers confirm your identity and assess whether your honesty, character, and history make you a fit and proper person, the legal standard for security licensing. Each state and territory regulator has its own application form and fee. These regulators are:
- Access Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory
- The Security Licensing & Enforcement Directorate in New South Wales, through Service NSW
- A Territory Business Centre in the Northern Territory
- The Office of Fair Trading in Queensland
- Consumer and Business Services in South Australia
- Consumer, Building and Occupational Services in Tasmania
- The Licensing and Regulation Division of Victoria Police
- WA Police Licensing Services in Western Australia
Every security licence application includes a criminal history check. Follow your regulator’s instructions on whether to order a national police check yourself before lodging or leave it to licensing officers.
Gather certified copies of your identity documents, training certificates, and first aid certificate. Complete your state or territory’s application form, attach those copies, pay its fee, and lodge it with your regulator.
Book any fingerprinting or photo appointment listed in your regulator’s instructions after you lodge. Licensing officers assess your application and issue a licence card once they approve it. The card lists each activity you are licensed for.
Finding Your First Job As A Security Guard
Search job boards by each title employers use for entry-level security work, including “security officer”, “crowd controller”, “patrol officer”, “concierge security”, and “event security”. Your trainer may also be able to point you in the right direction.
Put your security licence number and licensed activities at the top of your résumé. State exactly when you can work in each application, including whether you can take shifts at short notice. Employers look for security officers and guards who connect with others and are trustworthy, responsible, and reliable. Choose two referees who can speak to how dependable you are and how you deal with the public.
Security firms employ licensed officers and roster them across their clients’ sites. Search the Australian Security Industry Association’s member directory by the state your security licence covers and the services you can perform to find firms to apply to. Labour-hire agencies also place security staff with host businesses, so register with agencies that list security roles.
Prepare answers to scenario questions before each interview, such as how you would remove an intoxicated patron who refuses to leave or what you would do on seeing a shoplifter. Show de-escalation first and force only as a last resort, within the legal limits on your powers of arrest.
Start Your Certificate II In Security Course
With our Certificate II in Security Operations, you can step into a career founded on the trust of the people you protect. Strangers can put their safety in your hands without knowing your name. At the end of each shift, you can leave knowing the people in your care are on their way home safely. Enrol now and you can start working those shifts once your security licence is granted.
FAQs
Can I Work In Another State With My Security Licence?
Yes, once licensing officers in that state or territory approve your mutual recognition application and issue you a local licence for the same activities as your existing licence.
Can I Get A Security Licence With A Criminal Record?
Yes, if your record has no disqualifying offence within the period set by your state or territory’s licensing laws. Those periods can extend to 10 years from a recorded conviction.
Can I Get A Security Licence On A Visa?
Yes, if your visa includes current working rights in Australia. If you have lived overseas, licensing rules can require police checks from the other countries you lived in.
Do I Need To Redo My Training If My Security Licence Expires?
Not if you lodge your renewal application before your licence expires. Once a licence has lapsed for a set period, licensing rules can require a new application with newly issued training results from an approved RTO.