Educate Your Whole Team with Corporate Group Training Classes

Through Corporate Group Training, the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) offers a great way to train your entire team at once on any of PCI SSC’s 15 existing standards and programs. In this blog, we interviewed PCI SSC Director, Training Programs Travis Powell, about how the Corporate Group Training format can enhance your organization’s professional development.

What is Corporate Group Training?

Travis Powell: Corporate Group Training offers organizations the ability to learn directly from PCI SSC trainers, exclusively with the peers in their company. Our trainers offer instruction with hands-on experience assessing merchants and/or service providers. We offer most of our courses (for qualification or informational) in Corporate Group Training format. Currently, these are eLearning courses organized as remote, instructor-led sessions tailored to fit your organization. When it is permissible, our trainers will come to you and deliver the classes at your facility. We have found that Corporate Group Training offers all the benefits from a typical class, and we can cater the course to be convenient for your organization in whatever format works best for your needs.

Why should companies consider Corporate Group Training?

Travis Powell: It really comes down to flexibility and cost-savings. Not only can Corporate Group Training reduce the costs of travel associated with attending training courses, but it also allows organizations to plan training around a timeframe that works best for their team. Many of our courses can also be offered through computer-based training without a live instructor. With this option, we can offer Corporate Group Training discounts for bulk registrations. This allows for further flexibility in scheduling employees, especially across regions. Trainees can register and complete the training at a time that is convenient for them.

What are some of the benefits of Corporate Group Training?

Travis Powell: We have found that when we train teams together, they can ask clear, more direct questions that are related to their environment. Having the entire team on a single training session ensures that the questions being asked are relevant to their specific environment. Corporate Group Training sessions will also have an instructor available that is an expert on that standard. This allows the entire team to ask questions and get input from industry experts on the topics and issues that are important to them.

Are discounts available for Corporate Group Training?

Travis Powell: Yes, corporate discounts are available depending on group size. Informational training for groups can also qualify for discounts depending on size and courses that are being delivered. Please reach out to us for further details, as it relates to pricing, at training@pcisecuritystandards.org.

Which classes are offered in Corporate Group Training format?

Travis Powell: Most of our courses are available for Corporate Group Training, in both qualification and informational formats. If you or your organization have a request that is not currently supported for informational training at this time, please reach out to us and let us know. We are working on updating additional courses as part of our readiness efforts for PCI DSS 4.0, which will be released later this year.

The first milestone for the sunset of PA-DSS is fast approaching on 30 June 2021. This deadline affects acceptance of new PA-DSS applications. After this date, only Secure Software Validations will be accepted. Could you describe how Corporate Group Training could help software vendors with this transition?

Travis Powell: To help software vendors learn more about the Secure Software and the Secure SLC standards, we offer both classes as an informational Corporate Group Training. As I mentioned, this allows for more specific questions about your organization’s environment and allows your staff to be trained all at once at a time that works for your organization. In addition, a payment vendor can also send staff to the eLearning classes in May as informational students. To learn more about the PA-DSS migration, and how your team might be affected by this transition, please see our blog post: How to Successfully Transition Software from PA-DSS to the PCI Secure Software Standard.

How can I register my team for Corporate Group Training?

Travis Powell: You can learn more about Corporate Training by visiting our website. We have created a specific page that covers our Corporate Group Training offerings, as well as links to individual programs where you can obtain additional information. If you have any questions about any of our training offerings, please reach out to us at training@pcisecuritystandards.org.

Also on the blog: PCI SSC Offers Informational Training via New eLearning Platform