Personal protection — the path to a specialised security field

For some skilled security guards personal protection is the natural next ambition — to protect individuals rather than buildings or areas. It is simultaneously one of the areas in the trade where the demands on the individual are highest because the task directly concerns another person's safety at closest range.

§Approval is a prerequisite — not a formality

Personnel in an authorised security company must be approved under section 7 of the security company law. Approval requires, among other things, that you have reached 18 years of age, are not under guardianship or bankruptcy, do not have significant overdue debt to the public, and have not been convicted of a criminal offence that poses an imminent risk of misuse of the right to conduct security activities. Furthermore, you must demonstrate that you will otherwise perform security work in a responsible manner and in accordance with good practice in the industry. The police conduct a thorough background check as part of the approval, and a company doctor's statement must confirm that you are physically and mentally suited to security work.

§Specialized education on top of the basic education

Your journeyman certificate as a security guard is the foundation, but personal protection typically requires further, targeted further training. Among the vocational course offerings in the field are, for example, the course Guard in High-Security Areas, which is aimed at guard tasks with heightened security requirements and differs from the broad guard task by more trained risk assessment and closer collaboration with the client and authorities. The path to personal protection therefore goes through a combination of the qualified basic education, relevant vocational courses and a documented conduct record that can support heightened approval.

§What the task typically entails

Personal protection is largely about prevention: risk assessment of routes and locations, planning before the protected person even arrives, and constant attention to surroundings. Like in ordinary security work, the personal protector's most important tools are observation, foresight and the ability to avert a situation before it arises — physical intervention is still a last resort and is subject to the same self-defence rules as any other security guard.

• 01Tightened approval under the Security Guard Act § 7 (age, conduct, finances, medical certificate).
• 02Relevant further training, e.g. in highly secure environments.
• 03Strong discretion and confidentiality about the protected person's affairs.
• 04Still the same legal limits for use of force as in the rest of the security profession.

§A path that is built up over time

Very few start their guard career directly in personal protection. Most build experience through ordinary guard work — stationary guard duty patrols event security — and first seek specialization when they have a solid professional and personal foundation to stand on. It is not by chance: the more responsibility the task carries the more important is the experience behind it.

“Personal protection is not a different kind of security work — it is the same expertise taken to its most demanding level.”