Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 23/98) - SECURECheck, the company headed by a former Yellowknife Correctional Centre warden, is about to expand into training.

"When we started the business about 10 months ago, we thought more about pre-employment screening," Ron Near said.

But the firm's security officer training course has taken off.

The first 16-week course, scheduled to begin Jan. 18, has been filled.

In fact, there are so many applicants it looks like a second course, to be held later in the new year, will also be filled.

"We've got over 80 applicants for 24 spots in the first course," Near, who has 25 years experience with the RCMP, said.

Fee for the course is $4,500.

To teach the course, SECURECheck has hired someone from Nova Scotia who not only has a police background but also experience in instructing.

For training, the company is setting up two classrooms. In all, SECUREcheck has about 465 square metres, or about 5,000 square feet, of office space in the Scotia Centre.

Near says dozens of security jobs are not that far away.

"I estimate, in the next two to three years, 350 security jobs will come available in the North," Near said.

Diamond mining will generate a big part of those new jobs. Of the 450 BHP employees at the Ekati diamond mine, about 50 are security staff. He expects demand for corrections officers, community constables and wildlife officers as well as additional diamond industry security staff will increase.

Near said many of the new jobs anticipated in the coming years will come with good salaries. He said corrections security workers can start at around $40,000 a year while entry-level positions in the diamond industry could start at around $50,000.

Near, with his wife Peggy, as well as Phil and Delores Lee own SECURECheck.

As well as the security officer training program, SECURECheck, in partnership with the International Gemological Institute, offers a seven-day rough diamonds course.