DIPLOMA course in security studies and business management is attracting up to 100 applicants to Cork College of Commerce each year.
The two-year course was set up 10 years ago, then redesigned and developed about six years ago in response to an expansion within the industry. Since then, the course has proved highly successful in attracting young people who want to pursue a career in some area of the security industry, with a British-based qualification.
Many of the students want to become gardai. "It has certainly helped some students," says Fiona Desmond, the course director. "The guards won't recruit them at 18, so what are they going to do?
"About 10 per cent of our last two classes have been successful in getting into the guards, which sounds very low - but compared to the numbers who apply, it's not bad, and it's growing."
A Garda spokesman told E&L that applicants are assessed individually, and the relevance of such a course might differ from person to person.
Desmond explains how it might help: "They come here and they study law, statistics, the psychology of crowd behaviour - anything that we can think of that might be useful to them - business law, fraud fire arson, kidnapping, finger printing DNA analysis."
Susan O'Rourke, a second-year student, wants to be a garda. She believes that completion of the course will be taken into consideration by the recruiting authorities at the Garda Training College in due course. If she doesn't get into the Garda she hopes she will get into a police force in Britain or America. "The diploma is recognised internationally," she says.
John O'Doherty, in first year, also intends to apply to the Garda "in a couple of years time", but he is also interested in the area of security in general. "It seems to be a growth industry."
The course, O'Doherty says, "will be a very handy thing to have on your CV. It seems to be a good career to take up." Apart from the Garda Siochana, he says, there are other options, such as joining the prison officers or the fire brigade.
Sean Cremin, one of the teachers on the course, organises work experience for the students. They are obliged to do two weeks during their first year. His own links within the industry often help the young trainees to get on-going part-time work during their two years. This, in turn, can lead to continuing employment for them afterwards.
Many graduates, Desmond says, go into private security - an industry growing so quickly that graduates may get work within the retail business or at industrial sites, including managerial positions, as well as work as private investigators, store detectives, security guards.
Or they may become test-purchase officers - people who go anonymously to a cashier with a few purchases in order to test the cashier's honesty. Desmond cites research showing that 40 per cent of fraud in stores is committed by employees, as opposed to shoplifters.
Students who successfully complete this PLC course receive a diploma in security studies and business management from the British Institute of Commercial Management. The Irish Red Cross Society awards a basic certificate to first-years who complete the first aid exam, and an intermediate certificate to second-years who pass the next stage.
Desmond comments on the image of a person who works in security as "a burly chap standing outside" - height and might, she says, are often not as successful as a calm and confident look.
"Students are taught how to reason with people and to prevent crime rather than to deal with them.," she says. Over the two years students hear speakers from agencies including the prison service, the drugs squad and the fire service.
"There's an awful lot of employment at the lower level, just standing in shops, patrolling. There are fewer jobs up along. Our students would get those jobs."