Legal loopholes are allowing people to effectively buy sham licences to work as security guards anywhere in the country.

The ABC's 7.30 has revealed that government-approved organisations in Queensland are selling qualifications and providing test answers to people with no training at all.

Those people can then go and work anywhere in the country, making efforts to clean up the security industry in New South Wales and Victoria virtually redundant.

It is a system called "mutual recognition" that has been exploited by 11,000 people in the past two years alone to avoid the tough training, probation and citizenship requirements in some states.

Cameron Smith from the New South Wales Police says it is a legal loophole that needs to be fixed.

"People who are unwilling or incapable of getting through our training requirements are able to get through those interstate courses," Mr Smith said.

The SECTA training academy in New South Wales says in Queensland it is laughably easy to get the qualification that lets you become a licensed guard anywhere in Australia.

"You do a two-day training course, in some cases not even two days, you just virtually buy your certificate," SECTA's Duncan McGufficke said.

Dozens of Queensland-based training organisations offer a Certificate II in Security Operations - the qualification you need to be a bouncer, respond to burglar alarms, patrol the Sydney Harbour Bridge, or man the boom gates at military bases.

The courses all teach the same subjects, but there is a big difference in the amount of class time required before the final exam.

Sometimes it is seven days, sometimes two days, and some firms allow the whole course to be done online.

Security test

The ABC's 7.30 has tested the system to find out how easy it is to get a Queensland certificate.

Trainee security guard Brendan McCracken was asked to respond to an advertisement online by a broker for the Academy of Applied Business, a Queensland training organisation based in a suburban shopping strip.

It cost $700 for the course materials and the exam paper.

Mr McCracken did not even need to go to Queensland, he was told to collect his study papers at the headquarters of a western Sydney security firm.

Mr McCracken says the academy even gave him the answers.

"That was the dodgiest thing I've ever done," he said.

"He was more worried about the money than giving me the answer sheets.

"It made me feel very uncomfortable because all he wanted to do was make sure I had $700 and grab that money off me."

Mr McCracken handed in his copied answers on a Monday. A week later, his sham qualifications were issued by the academy.

Without doing a moment's study, he was eligible for a Queensland security licence, and thanks to the mutual recognition loophole, he could work anywhere in Australia.

Getting the certificate was the easy part, but getting anyone to own up to issuing it was harder.

In Queensland, the academy simply said it had no comment.

Lack of knowledge

The ability to effectively buy a security licence is attractive to people with limited English, many of whom are here on student visas.

But having guards with limited language skills is a big problem in an emergency.

Mr Smith is in charge of the NSW Police unit that licenses guards.

"We expect them to have the ability to manage an evacuation, to effect an arrest, to communicate with emergency services personnel," he said.

"If they can't speak English they can't do that."

The lack of basic knowledge and literacy among new security officers is illustrated by job application forms obtained by 7.30, which are filled in by Queensland-trained guards.

Q. What is your definition of assault? A. someone do rong think Q. Explain in detail what the term Positional Asphyxia means? A. Positional Asphyxia means security officer is aware of position and job they are doing

Positional Asphyxia actually refers to restraining a person by holding them face down on the ground for long enough that they stop breathing.

Not understanding this can have fatal consequences.

In April 2010, Sydney man Paul Ahsin died of asphyxia after he was held down by two bouncers at the Campbelltown Club Hotel.

The guards who restrained him had done their training interstate and they used mutual recognition laws to avoid the more stringent training in NSW.

In finding that the security officers contributed to Mr Ahsin's death, the New South Wales's deputy coroner said the certification system "is open to abuse and is putting lives at risk".

Interstate qualifications

At some security courses in New South Wales, guards must do 80 hours of face-to-face training.

"You must have the last two answers perfect in the test tomorrow. The amount of damage you can do here is extraordinary," Dave Ord from SECTA said.

The rules were tightened after an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry in 2009 found that qualifications were being sold in NSW.

A specialist police unit was also set up to monitor security training, but its work is undermined by the ease of transferring shoddy interstate licences.

"A lot of work has been done in New South Wales, unfortunately the situation with mutual recognition means that the work we're doing to raise our standards could drive more people to explore alternatives in other states," Mr Smith said.

The body that is supposed to regulate the Queensland training industry, the Australian Skills Quality Authority, declined 7.30's request for an interview.

In a statement it said it is new to the job, and is making preliminary inquiries into some of the training organisations.

NSW Police has asked the Council of Australian Governments to urgently review the Mutual Recognition Act, to give it the power to get rid of guards who have bought interstate qualifications.

In the meantime, there is nothing to stem the flood of applicants for Queensland courses.

"Word of mouth is fuelling the growth. That and more aggressive marketing by Queensland providers," Mr Smith said.