Washington, D.C. – Resident enrollments for the nation’s emergency responders, offered by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has increased nearly 10 percent since fiscal year 2001. More dramatic is the increase in distance learning and Web-based training enrollments through FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI), which climbed to 182,000 in fiscal year 2003, a 120 percent increase over 2001.
EMI curriculum continues to emphasize “all hazards” preparedness, leadership, new technology and best practices in a complex post-9/11 environment.
“The training philosophy we had before Sept. 11, 2001, continues to be solid. Emergency officials realize they need to continue training throughout their careers, especially now that terrorism and other man-made emergencies must be dealt with,” said Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response. “This training and its continued growth is critical because, as President Bush notes, our first responders are the first line of defense in homeland security.”
Classes are conducted 47 weeks a year at EMI. The institute is located at the Maryland-based National Emergency Training Center, overseen by the U.S. Fire Administration, part of FEMA.
While EMI has been offering an “all hazards” training curriculum since 1981, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, heightened awareness and boosted demand for both classroom and on-line training, according to the institute’s educators. That fresh look includes a new commitment to training a broader group of officials as part of a community’s emergency response system. Not only emergency managers and firefighters – who make up about a quarter of students – participate in the various EMI course offerings, so do officials from mayors’ offices, public works, emergency communications, schools and public health. An increasing number of students are also coming from law enforcement.
One of the biggest new components in EMI courses is public health. SARS and the anthrax attacks in
2001 have heightened awareness of the enormous emergency management challenges that such threats pose and how overall emergency response planning must integrate health issues. More health-related courses have been added to the curriculum, and more health professionals are enrolling in traditional emergency management courses. Exercises and training done by EMI are now done in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Public Health Service. In addition, in some of the integrated emergency management courses where participants might normally deal with natural disasters, the events written into the exercise include bioterrorism attacks or significant mass casualty events such as a plane crash.
Classes at EMI last from two days to two weeks, and students come from all over the U.S. Students pay no tuition or lodging costs and are generally reimbursed for their travel expenses.
In addition to resident classes at EMI, each year 190,000 firefighters, emergency officials, private citizens, educators and others take EMI distance learning courses via the Internet and some 85,000 more students get training off-campus.
This year, EMI began offering courses at the Noble Training Center, in Alabama. The center, a former Army hospital turned into a training center, moved from HHS to FEMA with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Training there will focus on preparedness for mass casualty events.
