What is CPD Accreditation and Why Does It Matter for Security Professionals?
All online courses delivered by London Security College are CPD-accredited, and the College is a specialist UK security training provider with over a decade of experience delivering bespoke security training and professional development programmes to security officers, retail loss prevention teams, and corporate security professionals across the United Kingdom.
This page explains what CPD accreditation means, why London Security College issues its own accreditation, and what that means for you as a learner or employer.
What Is CPD?
CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development. It refers to the ongoing process by which professionals maintain, improve, and broaden their knowledge and skills throughout their working career.
For security professionals in the UK, CPD plays an important role beyond the SIA licence. While the SIA regulates frontline licensing qualifications such as the Door Supervisor Level 2 and Security Guard Level 2, the majority of specialist skills a security officer needs throughout their career fall outside the scope of SIA licensing. These include retail loss prevention, conflict management, body worn camera operation, incident report writing, cyber security awareness, and dozens of other operational competencies.
CPD programmes fill this gap. They provide structured, assessed training that results in a recognised certificate, giving employers, clients, and regulators confidence that a security professional has completed verified training in a specific area.
Who Accredits Your CPD Courses?
London Security College accredits our CPD programmes. Every online course in the London Security College catalogue is designed, developed, assessed, and certified entirely in-house by security professionals for security professionals.
Why Choose London Security College?
1. Sector expertise that no external body can match
Most third-party CPD accreditation organisations are generalist bodies. They accredit courses across dozens of unrelated industries, from hairdressing to HR to hospitality. They have no specialist knowledge of the security industry, no understanding of SIA licensing requirements, no awareness of ACS audit standards, and no operational experience of what a security officer actually needs to know to do their job safely and lawfully.
London Security College has been delivering bespoke online security training for over a decade. Our directors and instructors have direct operational backgrounds in frontline security, corporate security management, and regulatory compliance. We understand this industry from the inside. That expertise is embedded in every course we produce.
2. Excellent course material
Our course materials reflect real operational intelligence built up over years of delivering training to thousands of security professionals across the UK. The content covers legal frameworks, tactical procedures, conflict management techniques, evidence handling protocols, and industry-specific risk management. This material is both commercially sensitive and operationally significant.
3. Quality control remains with the experts
London Security College maintains complete control over course quality, assessment standards, and certificate integrity. When a learner receives a London Security College CPD certificate, the standard it represents is set and maintained entirely by us, not by a generalist body that reviews a summary document and issues a rubber stamp.
We hold ourselves to a higher standard because we know what good security training looks like.
London Security College's Authority to Accredit
London Security College’s authority to accredit its own CPD programmes is grounded in the following:
Industry Experience: With over a decade of specialist security training delivery and thousands of graduates across the UK, London Security College has the operational knowledge and sector credibility to set and maintain professional standards within our own programmes.
Practitioner-Led Development: Every CPD course we produce is developed by security professionals with direct, real-world operational experience. Our course content is not written by generalist instructional designers. It is built by people who have worked in the roles the courses cover.
Alignment with Recognised Standards: All London Security College CPD programmes are developed in alignment with relevant UK and international standards, including BSI standards (BS 7499, BS 7858), NSI guidance, ISO 31000 (Risk Management), ISO 18788 (Security Operations Management), and the UK Data Protection Act 2018 / UK GDPR.
Proven Track Record: London Security College has trained thousands of security professionals across the UK, working with major employers, NHS trusts, local authorities, and private sector organisations. Our reputation in the sector speaks for the quality of our programmes.
CPD Hours and Professional Recognition
Each London Security College online course carries a designated CPD hours value based on the assessed learning time for the programme. CPD hours are calculated as follows:
| CPD Hours | CPD Points |
|---|---|
| 1 hour of learning | 1 CPD point |
| 2 hours of learning | 2 CPD points |
| 4 hours of learning | 4 CPD points |
| 6 hours of learning | 6 CPD points |
Your CPD points can be recorded in your personal CPD log and submitted as evidence of continuing professional development to:
- Your employer or line manager
- ACS audit documentation
- Professional body membership records
- Court or tribunal proceedings requiring evidence of competence
