Training & Mentoring

Mine Action Training & Mentoring

SafeLane is an industry leader in providing specialist explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) training and mentoring to its humanitarian and commercial clients. SafeLane develops and delivers relevant, effective and comprehensive training programmes for its international clients - including military and government bodies.

It understands, from its live and ongoing first hand experience, that a holistic and integrated approach is required for training to be most effective.  Training packages need to be adaptable and regularly reviewed to ensure information and content remains current and relevant to the training needs and its client requirements.

Training and mentoring aims & outcomes

A comprehensive and well understood training needs analysis (TNA) is required to enable thorough training delivery. SafeLane has experience and ability to conduct client’s TNA on their behalf to provide external and professional recommendations on training requirements and how to achieve valuable and effective training. This enables SafeLane to understand what end results are needed and how client’s goals can be achieved.

The aim of training personnel in specialist skills and capabilities is to improve both trainee knowledge, competence and experience but also to mitigate skill fade. SafeLane can tailor and design training and mentoring packages that meet required industry standards throughout a spectrum of skillsets and capabilities.

As a result, clients are left with competent trained individuals (or canines) which meet the desired minimum standard.

How does SafeLane train and mentor?

SafeLane’s approach to building training packages are versatile and purposefully flexible to be modified and designed to suit the client’s needs along with the required outputs and location where the training is to be delivered.

SafeLane delivers the most thorough, detailed and up to the minute training, and designs and implements all training requirements. Training can be tailored to integrate with a live counter-improvised explosive dedice (C-IED) or EOD strategy, to focus on individual customer requirements and tailored to any threat posed to clients.

SafeLane’s extensive experience covers training across a wide range of specialties and disciplines with a focus around humanitarian mine action (HMA), C-IED and canine detection training globally.  

Theory training can be delivered in a classroom setting through a “briefing” style format or it can designed and developed practically with trainers providing students a tailored approach of explaining, demonstrating, imitating and practice. This keeps students engaged and simulating the training first hand.

What training can SafeLane offer?

SafeLane offers a complete spectrum of EOD, medical, canine and combat field training suites which can be designed and developed to suit the clients ultimate end product in competent trained professionals. SafeLane’s training courses are based on its 30 years’ operational experience, and its training personnel’s unmatched qualifications, skills and professionalism.

All training courses are underpinned by the company’s rigorous standard operating procedures (SOPs), certified by ISO 9001:2015.  In turn, these SOPs are based on CEN Workshop Agreements and International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).

Canine training services

Detection dogs are considered essential in the identification of target odours. SafeLane have worked with a range of clients for detecting narcotics, firearms, and explosives.  Detection dogs provide a strong, visible, and psychological deterrent against terrorist threats. The EDDs can be utilised in a variety of security scenarios and are employed to complement other security threat mitigating measures.

Scientists have researched and proved that currently no piece of electrical equipment comes close to that of a dog’s nose. SafeLane have trained over 750 detection dogs globally across its 30 years experience. SafeLane’s canine training ensures its clients security needs are reinforced and supported by trained quality canines to detect and identify the required target scents to a professional and working dogs industry standard.

 SafeLane holds proven successful canine training experience in:

• Burkina Faso
• Mali
• Syria
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• South Africa
• Mozambique
• Iraq
• Afghanistan
• Yemen
• Bangladesh
• Azerbaijan

SafeLane can design and deliver canine and handler training, in addition training can be designed to increase and improve capacity development through train the trainer training for operational canine security and breeding programs.

Training can be performed from the basics covering kennel welfare and husbandry practices that  ensure the baseline care and welfare of detection dogs are maintained to provide the optimum dog detection operational performance. It can be further advanced through training and imprinting dogs on our a target scent to detect and then through on going development and continuous refresher training and assessment.

SafeLane can train dogs in explosives detection, narcotics detetion, mine detection and patrol or tracking dogs.

The training doesn’t just have to stop at the dogs. Qualified and competent handlers and trainers are essential for a successful canine program. SafeLane has extensive proven experience developing handlers and trainers into proficient and successful canine professional, both on their projects and on behalf of government clients running independent canine programs. This provides SafeLane’s clients with the assurance that the high professional standards are achieved and met.

EOD/IEDD training and mentoring

SafeLane Global trains personnel from EOD level I through to EOD level III+ in approximately six months, depending on the caliber and previous experience of the student. Standard training courses can be extended to ensure relevancy for specific in-country threats, or the specific needs of students. 

Standard training includes:

• explosives management
• specialist search training
• exploitation awareness
• casevac training
• demolitions and render safe procedures
• explosive hazard awareness training (EHAT)

SafeLane Global uses the highest qualified and skilled instructors, all of whom are ex-military and have full commercial experience as well.  For those with explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) level III experience, SafeLane Global provides current NATO qualified and experienced trainers to deliver comprehensive enhanced C-IED training packages to EOD level III+.

Search training 

SafeLane can deliver bespoke high threat theatre specific search training and has extensive experience providing this training in semi-permissive environments. Training can be developed from a basic introductory level to an advanced high threat route search advisor.

Route search training enables the searching of assessed vulnerable points (VP) and vulnerable areas (VA) along a defined route for the presence of IEDs.  It provides students with the knowledge, skills and ability to be able to identify a potential VP or VA, and determine how best they should be searched to locate, isolate or render safe IED threats.

Medical training

SafeLane can provide clients with a spectrum of medical training to provide already trained medics in advanced trauma care to non-trained personnel in basic first aid and life support.

Medical training can be designed and delivered to complement ongoing operations or prior to operational deployments.

Medical training can be practically focused and simulate realistic emergency scenarios through training aids and make up to emulate catastrophic injuries and through the use of mannikins.  

Pre-deployment training

The first and most important activity is to determine the required training outputs, and develop and agree on the required operational deployment plan. Pre-deployment training offers trainees theatre specific training to prepare for operational deployments to high threat environments when personnel are already skilled and trained in the required techniques and procedures prior.

SafeLane has extensive experience training multi-national militaries to prepare them for high threat tactical C-IED/search and medical training from packages designed and tailored to their requirements and abilities.

Examples:

SafeLane has extensive experience spanning three decades of working with military, government and civilian clients providing training and mentoring support.  SafeLane has also delivered multiple bespoke and specialized training courses in support of humanitarian initiatives including South Sudan, Sudan, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and Côte d'Ivoire.  SafeLane also delivers tailored training courses for its commercial clients to support national capacity building of military and local mine action authorities in Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Training methods:

SafeLane is experienced and adept at preparing and producing professional and effective training resources. Training methods and delivery is prepared and designed depending on the client requirement and the trainee.

SafeLane can provide it’s clients with detailed training plans or design practical courses and reduce the heavy paperwork where understanding and comprehension can be missed between the administration.

An effective method through SafeLane’s experience is to adopt practical and repetition training with where depending upon their complexity and the level of the Trainees lend themselves to this technique. The main aspect of this skills format is the use of practice time for the students. It is also flexible in that specific areas can be repeated; for example, if it becomes apparent that the Trainees are having difficulty grasping the skill prior to practice a 2nd demonstration or imitation may aid their learning.

To support SafeLane’s EOD and C-IED training modules, a wide variety of specialized equipment, standard military ordnance and improvised explosive devises training aids are used to support classroom and practical exercises.  These are developed and provided to ensure close practical realism for trainees where client’s can be assured the practical application can be as close to the real thing as possible.

Inert training aids enable instructors to create realistic training scenarios that include the wide variety of known IED triggers such as radio controlled IED (RCIED), victim operated IED (VOIED), suicide vest IED (SVIED) and vehicle borne IED (VBIED).

If out of the classroom, SafeLane can also offer clients on the job training (OJT) and mentoring support. This is a proven way to provide reassurance and real-time support for trainees recently new to a specialism and have that additional quality control and support.

The benefit of OJT is that real practical experience can be obtained quickly by trainees whilst having the presence of qualified and heavily experienced professionals provide technical advice and guidance.