HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT AWARENESS TRAINING
Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) prepares you for operating in hostile environments with an optional module in de-escalatory communication (HEAT +).
Who is this training for?
Journalists, staff of international organizations, aid and humanitarian agencies, monitoring missions, NGOs and businesses who operate in high risk environments such as post disaster areas, war or civil conflict zones, or weak states that do not provide public security.
Training topics
HEAT prepares you to recognize and mitigate risks inherent in functioning in hostile environments. The HEAT course has a tactical focus but we also deal with the psychological aspects of operating under risk-related stress. We also help you build a risk conscious mindset, a habit of being situationally aware - a key component of staying safe in hostile contexts. We will cover the following topics:
● Preparations at home base before departure
● Travel safety
● Situational awareness
● Threat assessment and mitigation
● Vehicle safety and checkpoints
● Kidnap, detention, and hostage situations
● Making decisions, performing tasks under stress
● First Aid training
HEAT+ includes an extra day dedicated to teaching you how to handle conflictual, tense, and potentially violent situations using communication. This module has been developed based on our expertise in crisis/hostage negotiation and training law enforcement officers in de-escalation communication. Like all our training programs, HEAT+ is rooted in experiential learning. When the module is active, we integrate specialized communication elements into our HEAT course tactical exercises. On the third, additional day of the training, we exclusively focus on reflexive/directive, de-escalation communication, building on the experiences gained from the previous two days. Trainees will explore the principles and techniques required for effective deployment. Furthermore, we provide additional role-play exercises throughout the third day to allow participants to practice and refine their de-escalation communication skills.
Methodology
Our training methodology places experiential learning at its core. We utilize a highly realistic framework of role play exercises, integrated and alternated with interactive group learning sessions. By connecting personal experience, including physiological and affective responses, with absorbed knowledge, trainees are better equipped to apply what they have learned in real-life situations. Trainees tackle kinetic and operational obstacles within a fictional story set in a typical VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment, tailored to their training objectives. Our role play framework enables us to guide trainees through simulated high-risk situations, not in an abstract manner, but with a focus on practical/tactical issues as well as self-perception, leadership, teamwork, and moral decision-making, as they would arise in reality. Trainees for example learn to:
● apply tactical knowledge under pressure,
● choose a course of action when facing bad options only,
● make decisions impacting others,
● build rapport with hostile actors (in HEAT + version)
Our HEAT course faculty includes experienced, qualified, professional role players and trainers with Special Forces, military, and law enforcement backgrounds as well as psychologists, sociologists with adult education and university teaching practice. No previous experience is needed to attend the HEAT or HEAT + courses. However, we do take into consideration past trainee experience and calibrate the training to match. Trainees who successfully complete HEAT or HEAT+ receive a certificate valid and verifiable with us for three
years.
Delivery
HEAT is a 2-day course. HEAT+ is a 3-day course. Training group size: 6-12 participants. Please, fill out the contact form below and we will contact you about the next open training event.