Crisis Management Practitioner (S-CMP)

Advanced crisis management training with full-scale crisis simulation
EnrollBook as in-company

What will you learn?

  • 9Understand how crises emerge and progress, identify potential crisis situations and assess their impact;
  • 9Set up an internal Crisis Management Organisation, allocate roles and responsibilities, and establish effective crisis management and communication processes to respond to a crisis;
  • 9Use industry best practice crisis control methodology to handle life-like crisis scenarios in a simulated company environment;
  • 9Understand and practice stakeholder analysis, internal and external communications, and social media communications during a crisis.

Information

  • 5 course days - 1pm - 6.00 CE(S)T
  • 50 hours of self-study
  • R1 CPE credit per study hour

Crisis Management Practitioner Course – Advanced crisis management training with simulation

Our Crisis Management Practitioner course equips you with the knowledge and skills you need to become a competent Crisis Management Team member and help lead your organisation through a crisis, or start a career in crisis management. In this hands-on interactive crisis management training, you will learn how to implement a crisis management and communications process in your organisation, and you will practice your crisis management and crisis communications skills with increasingly complex life-like crisis scenarios in a simulated company environment. With the guidance of experienced crisis management professionals, you will explore how to recognise an emerging crisis, how to build and activate an internal Crisis Management Organisation, and how to structure cooperation and communication between crisis teams to enable effective crisis response.

Throughout the course, you will use your newly acquired crisis management skills to help a (simulated) company manage disasters, cyberattacks, pandemics, product-harm crises and other impactful events. You will participate in simulated Crisis Management Team meetings, where you will practice making decisions, allocating roles and responsibilities and delegating tasks under stress. Finally, you will learn to use effective internal and external crisis communication strategies to minimise the financial and reputational impact of different types of crisis. At the end of the course, you will be able to set up an internal crisis organisation and handle a crisis in line with crisis management best practices.

Is this Crisis Management Practitioner course for you?

This advanced crisis management training is particularly suitable for professionals who would like to start a career in crisis management and qualify for roles such as (junior) crisis management officer, crisis management consultant or crisis communications coordinator.

Do you have a different career path but are you a (prospective) member of your organisation’s Crisis Management Team? Packed with realistic crisis exercises, this hands-on practitioner course will help you build the practical crisis management skills you need to enhance your organisation’s crisis resilience. We especially recommend you to participate if you are a security, incident response, human resources, facility management, communications or public relations professional. Finally, this crisis management training has major benefits for senior executives involved in implementing a crisis management process, managing Crisis Management Team members or working with Crisis Management Teams during a crisis.

Prerequisites to joining this Crisis Management Practitioner course

This advanced crisis management training focuses on practicing crisis management skills through managing realistic crisis scenarios. To make the most of the crisis simulation exercises, you should already have a good understanding of fundamental crisis management terms and principles. Unsure if you know enough to join this training? You can learn the fundamentals quickly in our Crisis Management Foundation training.

What is included in this Crisis Management Practitioner course?

Before the training starts, you will receive your course material through our student portal. The course materials are in English. The language of instruction is either English or Dutch, depending on the participants.

Your Crisis Management Practitioner training package includes:

  • Official SECO-Institute course materials developed by practicing crisis management professionals;
  • Training from passionate instructors with extensive experience in crisis management (consultancy);
  • Practice exam and exam syllabus so you can fully prepare for your certification exam;
  • Certification exam voucher;
  • Access to the (S)ECO-system, a professional community website where you will find additional resources and exclusive knowledge events.

Crisis Management Practitioner Course Modules

Module 1: Introduction to Crisis Management

Topics covered:

  • Understanding crises and their impact
  • Incidents vs crises
  • The way crises emerge and progress
  • Organisational environment of crisis management
  • Relationship between crisis situations and stress
  • Crisis methodologies to use in a crisis situation

Module 2: Setting Up the Crisis Management Organisation​

Topics covered:

  • Establishing and activating the Crisis Management Organisation (CMO)
  • Roles and responsibilities in the CMO
  • Avoiding chaos with crisis control methodology
  • Communication between all CMO teams

Module 3: Managing a Crisis

Topics covered:

  • Identifying and applying effective crisis strategies
  • Working with crisis control methodology
  • Information analysis, triage and contextualisation to enable good decision-making
  • Crisis Management Team (CMT) meeting structure and CMT meetings in practice

Module 4: Communication Between Teams in the Crisis Management Organisation

Topics covered:

  • Hierarchical structure of the Crisis Management Organisation (CMO)
  • Organising the CMO communication structure
  • Applying methods for communication between CMO teams
  • Importance and role of the Support Team in the CMO
  • The way stress affects the brain and impacts communication between teams

Module 5: Impact and Stakeholders​

Topics covered:

  • Crisis impact areas and potential consequences
  • Importance of the crisis environment analysis​
  • Identifying stakeholders and dividing them into target groups​
  • Ownership and responsibilities

Module 6: Crisis Communications

Topics covered:

  • Understanding the function of crisis communications in the Crisis Management Organisation​
  • Internal communications and prioritisation
  • External communications and application of communication strategies
  • Relationship with the press and proper crisis response communication​

Module 7: Reputation Management​

Topics covered:

  • Ownership of reputation management​
  • Brand identity, image and reputation​
  • Basics of reputation management​
  • The role of trust in building a good reputation​
  • Identification of reputational issues

Module 8: Managing Social Media ​

Topics covered:

  • Social media developments​ and their impact on crisis communications
  • Risk response strategies​
  • Using social media during a crisis​
  • Pros and cons of using social media​ in crisis communications

Module 9: Crisis Simulation

The course ends with a full-scale crisis simulation that takes place in a simulated company environment (a beverage manufacturer called Bicsma). In the simulation, you will act as Bicsma’s Crisis Management Team and apply your crisis management skills to help the company manage a complex crisis. In addition to practicing your crisis management skills in an authentic crisis scenario, the simulation also allows you to grasp how to organise a tabletop exercise to test your own organisation’s Crisis Management Plan and its capability to respond to a (simulated) emergency. For In-Company trainings, we can tailor the simulation to your company’s specific needs. 

Crisis Management Practitioner Certification Exam

The Crisis Management Certification exam is conducted by the SECO-Institute, Europe’s leading security and continuity certification body. The exam voucher is included in the course fee, but you need to schedule your exam with the SECO-Institute. Upon successful completion of the exam, you will receive an exam certificate and an invitation to register your official SECO-Crisis Management Practitioner (S-CMP) certification title. By activating your certification title, you will become a certified professional in your field and you will receive a shareable digital badge to verify your competence to clients, employers and fellow professionals.

Exam information

  • Exam language: English
  • Exam delivery: Online exam with remote proctoring
  • Exam format: 40 multiple-choice questions in total (30 multiple-choice questions and two case studies with five multiple-choice questions per case study)
  • Duration: 120 minutes

Why earn a SECO-Crisis Management Practitioner (S-CMP) certificate?

The CMP certification exam tests your real-world crisis management skills. By passing the CMP certification exam and earning a SECO-Crisis Management Practitioner (S-CMP) certificate, you demonstrate your ability to:

  • Identify roles, responsibilities and competencies for an internal crisis organisation;
  • Allocate resources to the crisis management organisation;
  • Identify reputational risks and continuity risks;
  • Draw up a crisis management plan;
  • Handle a crisis in line with crisis management best practices;
  • Evaluate your crisis management plan and identify areas for improvement;
  • Chair a crisis management team meeting;
  • Inform employees about a crisis;
  • Monitor media during a crisis;
  • Compile a basic external crisis communications strategy with a special focus on handling social media and the press, and draft crisis press releases
  • Plan, set up and run crisis simulation exercises

What are the benefits of an S-CMP certificate?

An S-CMP certificate enables you to demonstrate core competencies employers look for in crisis management professionals: the ability to lead a crisis team, the ability to contribute to crisis planning and strategy, the ability to actively mitigate a crisis situation, and the ability to assess the performance of crisis teams and identify improvement opportunities. If you are considering a career in crisis management or crisis communications, S-CMP is an important step to take towards your goal. The certificate is particularly suitable for professionals who are actively working towards a career as a (junior) crisis management officer, crisis management consultant, crisis communications coordinator or crisis spokesperson.

Authors & Lead Trainers

Mariette Neumann
Author & Trainer

Senior Advisor & Co-Founder
ITP Groep Crisismanagement

Jacob van ‘t Slot
Trainer

NGO security-, and crisis management advisor
Co-Founder at Global Risk Advice

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