Tip of Spear is excited to announce that they have helped teach Albertans how to stay safe for the past decade. They are proud to have officially passed the 10 year mile marker as a business and are looking forward to continuing to serve for the next 10 years! Tip of Spear, whose head office is in Edmonton, Alberta, and who specializes in protection career education and personal safety training, incorporated the company June 24, 2011.
It all started with one guy with a vision. That guy's name is Dave Suffern. That vision was to provide quality training to smaller security companies who didn't have the time, depth of knowledge or resources to have dedicated training staff or develop tailored training programs. Dave saw many situations where trainers were often tasked with many other roles, were very new to the industry themselves or changed jobs frequently, and didn't have the experience to provide customized situation-based training. "There was an opportunity to make change and fill in the gaps," says Dave as he looked back at the start of the journey.
Dave pitched his idea to Ida Agronin, who was a business savvy friend, and they decided to move forward in full force. Together they developed Tip of Spear to be a consistent, trusted source of expertise and education in the Alberta industry. The goal was to equip every single individual who walked through the door to do well in their protection careers and stay safe in life. The education provided would not just be facts, but transformational understanding that improved skills, mindset and confidence.
Now, 10 years later, after 3 office and training locations, they have 14 instructors, 4 support staff, 13 training programs and many other services. The team has successfully helped over 10,000 individuals enter the security industry and progress in their jobs. They've provided advanced communications and use of force training to many peace officer regions. They have educated staff from dozens of different industries on conflict resolution and corporate safety. And they have trained hundreds of individuals on different forms of self-defence. Even as one of the largest training companies in Alberta, Ida puts it into perspective, "We are a humble leader, in that we still are trying to be better, we're still trying to offer other things, still trying to improve things."
The journey wasn't always smooth though. When asked about how they got through the challenging times, Ida said, "I believed in the business... Dave and I are cut from the same cloth in how we want to see people do well and be better and build better people. It wasn't just about money, it was about heart too." Dave added, "The part that caused us to excel was it wasn't about proving ourselves... it was about making people better and they were our ambassadors."
For the full interview and inside story, watch the video
The Tip of Spear team has big plans for the future of the company. "We didn't call Tip of Spear 'The Security Guard Training Company' for a reason," Dave said. "We called it 'Tip of Spear' because we wanted to be at the forefront, and we wanted to make sure we could expand as we needed to, so it could be a flexible platform to meet the needs of our clients." They will continue to stay steady, to learn, grow and serve. There are many expansion plans underway with new exciting projects which will be announced in due time. If you would like to stay updated, please follow them on social media or join the email list.
Tip of Spear has a vision to create a movement to elevate the security and peace officer industries. The team will continue to improve and expand their training programs to increase competencies and develop the leadership, character and reputation of those in field. They also are dedicated to educating the public on the value of these important roles in the safety of our communities. If you or your company are passionate about these concepts, please contact us to discuss possibilities of working together.