CSAA, ALAS, CANASA offer multilingual training

VIENNA, Va.—The Central Station Alarm Association on April 29 announced its CSAA Central Station Operator Level I online course is now available in Spanish and French. Developed in a partnership with the Asociación Latinoamericana de Seguridad (ALAS), and the Canadian Alarm Association (CANASA), the course now extends its reach beyond the English-speaking security industry.

According to ALAS director of operations Víctor Alarcón there is a real need for education and standardization in areas where English is not spoken. “The Latin American security industry and central stations, in particular, are in great need of education. They want to become more professional and deliver a better service to customers,” Alarcón said. “We joined in a venture with the CSAA to translate and bring to Latin America the course they have been successfully teaching in central stations around the United States, for several years already.”

CSAA executive vice president Steve Doyle said the current offerings are just the beginning of the CSAA's efforts to spread its message. “We really had to customize. This is just Level I to start with, but the others will come. There's just a lot of technical complications in here when you get down to how they access the course, how they pay for it … There were a lot of things to be ironed out,” Doyle said, noting customization and translation of the CSAA training lead to a stronger unity in the industry. “The upshot is that … in every country there is a real need for standardized training to be able to talk to their AHJs and their powers that be and say, 'Yes, we have some sort of standard here for operator training, so we can do this in a systematic way' so the AHJs know what to expect when they receive a call.”

Additional information on the multilingual offerings can be found at http://www.csaaul.org/CSAAOLTraining.htm.