HEAT - Hostile Environment Awareness Training

Aim of the training

• Know how to prepare for trips into high-risk areas, hostile environments and conflict zones
• Be familiar with the risk landscape in those countries
• Understand how to implement preventive measures
• Train for the appropriate response to critical incidents

Our experienced HEAT instructors

The instructors are former members of Government security agencies or military special forces with years of governmental and commercial (NGOs, media, corporations) training and advisory experience.

Our interdisciplinary team for security training for crisis regions consists of, among others:

• The former founder and head of the HEAT training unit of a federal German security agency, who has been advising and training organisations on security issues for many years. He is regularly deployed as a crisis response advisor for kidnappings and non-medical evacuations in conflict zones.

• A former member of the medic platoon within the German Special Forces (KSK), who has been deployed worldwide for years as a paramedic, flight medic and mountain rescuer and instructor for medical aid organisations. He is also currently on assignment as an embedded security advisor and medic for journalists operating in Ukraine.

Our trainers of this seminar have themselves lived and worked in high-risk countries. They travel regularly to countries like Venezuela, Libya, Nigeria, Iraq, Pakistan and the Ukraine. 

For more detailed information about our core team of HEAT instructors click on the link.

Methodology

• Lectures, presentations, discussions
• Group work, role play, simulations
• Numerous practical exercises

Duration

Based on the client's requirements the duration of the trainings varies. Usually, a standard HEAT training requires 3-5 days.

We run the our hostile environment awareness training (HEAT) as in-house training and as open courses. Open HEAT courses are offered as 5-day training.

Topics of the HEAT course

• Context analysis and risk assessments
• Travel preparation
• Planning for emergencies such as evacuations
• Perception of threats and psychological impact of working in high-risk areas
• Tactics of perpetrators
• Landmine & weapon awareness
• Measures to take when traveling on foot and by vehicle
• How to assess and increase the security of sites, houses or rooms
• Information security
• Behaviour at checkpoints and during interrogation by local authorities
• Surveillance detection
• Hostage survival
• Behaviour in the event of shooting attacks and explosions
• Behaviour during violent protests
• Medical emergency planning and care in the field
• Stress management & post-traumatic stress disorder

Training facility

The training can be conducted at our HEAT training site or at other locations worldwide. Our training site includes buildings, a network of roads, rural areas, different types of vegetations as well as accommodation and full catering. Numerous realistic simulation exercises with vehicles and on foot, including the use of pyrotechnics, can be conducted on our premises. 

Our training facility is located near Ulm (Southern Germany, halfway between Munich and Stuttgart). Shuttle services from the next railway station or from the Airport Stuttgart can be arranged.

Questions and Answers about our HEAT course

As there are many questions about HEAT training - such as what the differences are compared to classic travel safety training, how our training differs from other providers - we have put together a list of frequent questions and our answers. You can find them here.

Training dates

Our next open 5-day HEAT course takes place:

14 to 18 November 2022 (course language is English)

Contact us to receive more information and the course flyer.