Excellentia vs Ronin - CP course

B

BearDJ

Full Registered User
Hi guys,

Been looking around at courses and I've narrowed my training down to one of two... Ronin or Excellentia.

Can anyone shed some light on their preference of course? Or how the courses stack up on a CV?

Ideally I'd LOVE to work in London as I'm London based but I know the course from Ronin allows me to work in SA,UK and the Middle East.

Thanks,
DJ
 
Excellentia. Their course is ran in London, they have ongoing operational contracts in London.

Ronin SA is an outstanding course, but is largely worthless to you at 22 with no military background, because you won't get hired for any hostile work - full stop.
 
Hi BearDJ

Ok my advice to you would be look at both courses and see what best suits your needs I did the Ronin SA course back in 2005 based on my needs and aspirations. Both of the courses have a good name on the circuit and to clarify something that has been stated the Ronin course is a very good all round close protection course. Take your time weigh up everything both courses will give you and another idea is ring some companies and ask which they recognise.

For me what finally sold the Ronin SA course over everything else at the time was that I had to jump on a plane go to a country I had never been to before and complete and pass a five week close protection course so it put me out of my comfort zone from day one which meant I was tested well.

Just my view and either way which ever course you pick I wish you the best and success.

Alex
 
As an employer I can tell you they are both well thought of on a CV, However, you need to consider what type of CP you want to do. As already said at 22 with no background you will not get hostile work. At 22 you are still a little young to get corporate CP work, you may get an RST position in UK. I would go for the London based course as this is where a lot of the work is.
I know the instructors at Excellentia and have worked with them, they know there job well.
Dont be swayed by guns knives and shootouts it dosent happen as a rule in corporate cp work in the UK and they are skills you can learn further down the road if you feel the need to.

FBG
 
BearDJ,
You have obviously done your due diligence to narrow down your choices to Ronin and ourselves so feel free to call us on 0207 060 2130 to discuss further or email training@excellentia.co.uk should you require any further information.
Next course is from Monday 2nd to Sunday 22nd March 2015 and is filling up.
All the best for 2015
Regards
The Excellentia Team
 
BearDJ said:
Hi guys,

Been looking around at courses and I've narrowed my training down to one of two... Ronin or Excellentia.

Can anyone shed some light on their preference of course? Or how the courses stack up on a CV?

Ideally I'd LOVE to work in London as I'm London based but I know the course from Ronin allows me to work in SA,UK and the Middle East.

Thanks,
DJ
Click to expand...

Ronin is aimed at Hostile and without that background, I wouldn't bother.

That obviously limits your market for employment, especially considering your age. Excellentia, heard majority good and heard some minor niggles but you take it with a pinch of salt unless witnessed first hand.

Corporate CP, Excellentia will give you the basic skills you require but remember in Corporate/Unarmed CP with business clients, your social etiquette, look and manner, tick the boxes just as much as the security course itself.

The market is flooded with military and police boys and girls, the skill set that will put you in front of others is the above requirements.

I've recruited many guys on how articulate they are as well as the background/experience etc.

Good luck.
 
Hi all thanks for the great advice!

Alex - Thank you for your time. I was recommended the course by a contact who is an ex-marine and works in maritime security. I’ve also spoke to a course graduate and he has said the training he received was amazing. I’ve not had the chance to speak with an Excellentia graduate as yet, but the info on their info site does look very good from what I have read. Would the fire arms license help with getting work abroad? I want to maximise my work potential and be able to be skilled across the board. I also want to do the FPOS training as i believe this is vital for a CPO to do his/her job fully.

fbg – Thank you for the insight from an employer’s eyes! I do want to work in London and would love to do corporate cp. What is the normal age for corporate CP’s? as stated above, the guns and knives aren’t a deciding factor I simply want to get into the best course possible to allow myself a good base to build on and be able to grow as a CP once I have finished the course.

ENJ – Thank you, am I correct in assuming you are saying that Excellentia course is better for corporate CP work, but I’d need to do subsidiary courses to gain other skills and better my CV?

Excellentia – Thank you for taking notice in our discussion and I will be in touch in within a week.
 
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AMCMW, fbg, ENJ1986,

There seems to be a misconception.

Ronin ZA is NOT a HECPO course, even though many of their graduates end up doing HECPO jobs.

As a graduate myself, I would call it a "global CPO" course. It is actually relevant to CP in South Africa, where the environment can look like Europe and the threat can rise up to HE levels. Their students come from all over the world and expect the course to match their environments.
 
Araund.
As a Ronin Grad, have you done any corporate CP work or have you also gone to HECP?
Do you find the course relavant to Corporate CP work?
 
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Only one short task in Europe, several VIP tasks in Central/Western Africa, and I've been in Iraq for 8 months now.

For each type of job the training was relevant, however a great capacity of adaptation is needed.
 
Homi - Just get in touch with them, email and tel no. is above in this thread.

Arnaud - I see from your profile you are Ex. Legioners? Do you find that having this background helped you get those "gigs". I'm 22 and have no experience with the industry... yet. :cool:
 
BearDJ

your welcome ok coming back to the points you asked ok on the firearms side I wouldn't worry too much about that because as a professional CPO that is the last thing we want to think about unless every other option has been ruled out. However if you do decide to attend the Ronin SA course they will teach you what you need to know. You asked about FPOS-I you can get that on the same course to as it is part of the course package.

You went on to ask about being skilled across the board and maximising your potential for future work ok if I were you my advice is first get your CP course and FPOS-I qualifications from which ever course you decide to do for a start then network, network, network to get your first job start small and work up.

You also mentioned working abroad that will take time if you are new to the industry and if you are thinking about the Hostile environment it will be very difficult without a military or police background and there are a great deal of people with such experience trying to get just that. If I were you start in the UK and build yourself a good reputation and don't rush take your time think all this through.

Alex
 
BearDJ said:
Arnaud - I see from your profile you are Ex. Legioners? Do you find that having this background helped you get those "gigs". I'm 22 and have no experience with the industry... yet. :cool:
Click to expand...

Of course it does. But it is not everything, actually it is just the starting point.

What makes a difference is the daily hard work, networking and gathering info about the market. Your language skills, your marketable abilities. Your vision of the market as something global and continuous, not just "London or Iraq". The marketing of your public image through social networks, attending events, keeping in touch...

Etc...
 
Alex & Araund,

Thank you for your replies and advice, sorry for the late reply!
I think I'm going to go for the Ronin course as I feel it's a better base platform to build from. I feel like once I have the course under my belt, I will then look to do the Excellentia at a later stage to help hone the skills I have learnt and can then focus on corporate CP work. Araund in regards to language skills, I already speak Afrikaans as I'm an expat from South Africa, I will use this to gain a new language, maybe German? As it is really closely spoken with Afrikaans.

Everyones input has been invaluable and I do really appreciate it all!
Hope you all had a good new years and a great 2015 ahead of you.

Bear :cool:
 
Personally, I think that young man will do well whichever course he does.... He's articulate, obviously educated, and has manners & common sense, all qualities that are sadly lacking in many CP trained guys who are working....... Forget the HE bit mate, and go for it......... Keep us posted, I wish you well!
 
Bash said:
Personally, I think that young man will do well whichever course he does.... He's articulate, obviously educated, and has manners & common sense, all qualities that are sadly lacking in many CP trained guys who are working....... Forget the HE bit mate, and go for it......... Keep us posted, I wish you well!
Click to expand...

Thank you Bash.

I will keep everyone posted. Planning on doing a real "blog" on here once I start my course. Limited, naturally, to what I can and can't say. I am looking to do the June CP course with Excellentia after re-evaluating the two course. The Excellentia course is better tailored for myself, but all of that is neither here nor there!

Hope every one is doing well and has a cracking year ahead.

Regards,
Bear :cool:
 
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BearDJ said:
Hi guys,

Been looking around at courses and I've narrowed my training down to one of two... Ronin or Excellentia.

Can anyone shed some light on their preference of course? Or how the courses stack up on a CV?

Ideally I'd LOVE to work in London as I'm London based but I know the course from Ronin allows me to work in SA,UK and the Middle East.

Thanks,
DJ
Click to expand...

Hi Bear,
I think I have read most of the posts on this thread so, sorry if you have already answered this, but can you tell me what criteria you applied before you settled on Excellentia or Ronin as your chosen TPs?
And how many other TPs did you look at before making your selection?
 
Oasis said:
Hi Bear,
I think I have read most of the posts on this thread so, sorry if you have already answered this, but can you tell me what criteria you applied before you settled on Excellentia or Ronin as your chosen TPs?
And how many other TPs did you look at before making your selection?
Click to expand...

Hi Oasis.
Not at all! I don’t mind sharing what knowledge I do have.

I’ve looked at a lot of trainers, some smaller companies here and there whose names escape me. I’ve looked at phoenix training from phoenix themselves as well as through third parties that offer the ‘phoenix program’ such as G4S.

Ronin came recommended to me through a few contacts that I have and Excellentia I found myself through my own personal searching and this site which has helped a lot on finding a suitable trainer! There are many threads on here with loads of discussion points about loads of different trainers and a good listing of renowned trainers worldwide.

Ronin is based in South Africa, so for me that was familiar and Excellentia being London based is a bit more out of my comfort zone as I’ve only been (greater) London based for 7 years. In the end the Excellentia Course is more tailored towards what I want to do and going to be a harder challenge for me.

At the end of the day, you have to look at your own personal goals and where you want to go. Then you should start looking for trainers; find a trainer that offers the style of learning you learn best from. Myself, I’m a practical learner I need to see how things work and learn through actively doing these things. If you are more class room orientated then find a trainer that still offers you the practical time, because of the line of work we are discussing you simply can’t just learn from a book. But if you best learn from a book before “diving in head first” (how I feel about my practical approach to learning), then find a trainer that provides that style of learning environment. Remember you need a trainer that will deliver in the style that best suits your learning, with course material best tailored to where you want to go in your career.

For me the deciding factors have been:
1) I want to work in London/cities
2) I want to do Corporate CP
3) I’d prefer to not go to HE’s, although I have not disposed of this idea, I don’t feel it’s a suitable starting point for me coming from a civi background.
4) Budget, as sad as this point is we all have to think realistically at what we can and cannot afford. Although saying this, the price of the course should NEVER be the final deciding factor! If need be just wait that little bit longer and save a little harder it may be the difference between landing a great “gig” and struggling to land any!

I hope this has helped and if I’ve missed out on something please let me know!

Good luck with your endeavours and all the best in the future!
Regards,
Bear
 
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