Eastern Kentucky University and the Loss Prevention Foundation have joined efforts to enhance the educational opportunities for loss prevention professionals.

The two parties signed a memorandum of agreement on July 14 that allows the University to accept graduates of the Foundation’s Loss Prevention Certification Program into a Special Topics class in EKU’s graduate program in Safety, Security and Emergency Management.

The Foundation works closely with many of the country’s largest retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s, JC Penney, The Gap, TJX, Walgreens, and many others.

Participants in the certificate program, typically loss prevention professionals employed by major retailers and others, will receive academic credit at EKU for the completion of SSE 890, Topical Seminar in Loss Prevention (LPQ/LPC). In addition to course assignments, each student will be required to submit a research paper on an approved topic.

The LPQualified (LPQ) certification is designed to be a benchmark educational program for both entry level and individuals already within the profession, while the LPCertified (LPC) is designed as advanced education for loss prevention professionals interested in career advancement.

Because the course (and for that matter, EKU’s entire graduate program in Safety, Security and Emergency Management) is available online, many working professionals are expected to take advantage of the convenience.

“This partnership with the LP Foundation provides EKU and the SSEM graduate program a way to market to this unique loss prevention population of working professionals and provides the retail side of the profession a direct avenue to our graduate program,” said Tom Schneid, director of EKU’s Graduate Program in Safety, Security and Emergency Management. “This partnership will result in attracting additional students who might not otherwise have known of our program and EKU.”

The Foundation approached EKU about the feasibility of such a partnership, Schneid said. The president of the Loss Prevention Foundation is Gene Smith, an EKU graduate.

“The retail loss prevention profession serves the needs of senior retail management (and) over the last many years, senior leadership has set higher expectations for our industry,” said Smith. “We can only meet those expectations by providing better education to our loss prevention professionals and by increasing the number of college-degreed candidates available for hire and promotions.

“The Asset Protection Program and now the Master’s in Safety, Security and Emergency Management at EKU have been among the finest programs of their kind in the country,” Smith added. “EKU has the distinction of being the first major university to respond at this level to the educational needs of the retail loss prevention industry by forming this partnership. This is another fine example of the foresight of their academic leadership.”

The Loss Prevention Foundation is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 by industry-leading professionals to advance the loss prevention profession by providing relevant, convenient and challenging educational resources.