Explosive Threat Awareness Training Canceled

Readers will remember that earlier this week, in my post about the updated Chemical Sector Training and Resources page, I noted that the Chemical Sector Explosive Threat Awareness Training Program (CSETATP) had been removed from the list of available training programs listed on that page. At the time of that post I wasn’t sure if the program had in fact been canceled or if there were just no sessions scheduled for the near future. I contacted the Chemical Sector Specific Agency to see what was going on.

Here is the explanation that I received:

“Unfortunately, the CSETAT program description was removed because the contract that funded the training has ended. We are currently assessing what our options might be in the future. If alternative or additional explosive threat awareness training options are identified, we will post them on the Web site – so keep checking.”

It sounds to me that if someone had a program ready to go and could reach an agreement with Chemical SAA then we could have continued training in this area. It really is an important area for every security manager to be knowledgeable in and most civilians are woefully mis-informed about matters explosive; too much Hollywood information out there.

I’m sure that there are official vendor channels to go through, but if you’re interested in talking to the Chemical SAA folks you can probably start the discussion with an email to them at Chemicalsector@dhs.gov.