Northwest Survival Skills, LLC was founded because of a definite, and identifiable, need for quality survival skills training for our law enforcement and security professionals.  Even in tough economic times this need does not go down, and some would even say it grows.

Oregon's Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) has fallen victim to these same budget shortfalls and as a result has to focus on the entry level training for our officers.  Sadly, DPSST does not offer adequate intermediate, advanced and instructor level training on a regular basis for law enforcement and security professionals who desperately need it.  DPSST no longer even certifies instructors who do not work for them teaching the mandated "core" courses at their academy.  Because of these "budget shortfalls", the next logical step for DPSST is to require any person attending an instructor level course to teach a certain number of hours for DPSST in order to be approved to attend one of their classes.  This requirement, if put in place, would place an undue financial and staffing burden on the agencies seeking to create instructors.  Worse yet, it could create hardships for instructors and their families.