By Nick Buckley
The training officer of a fire department is an underappreciated and much more labor-intensive position than many firefighters may realize, and even more so in a volunteer fire department setting. Perhaps one reason for this is the amount of preparation for training is performed behind the scenes: out of sight and out of mind of the other department members. There is, without a doubt, no argument against the importance of effective and efficient training of firefighters, career or volunteer. At the end of the day, a fire station without trained personnel is just a garage with a lot of expensive equipment. When I stepped into this role, I felt completely lost at the prospect of trying to coordinate training and come up with subject content and ideas.
- Planning a Volunteer Fire Department Training Program
- Setting Your Firefighter Training Program Up for Success
- Developing a Fire Service Training Program
- Setting the Course for Training
Compared to a career department, where training can occur much more frequently and regularly due to shift schedules, volunteer departments are constantly competing for the time of their members. The members of a volunteer fire service usually have other duties and responsibilities—family, work, and other personal tasks and hobbies. When members show up for training, it is imperative that the members perceive the training as being well worth their time. There has been a lot of recent focus and articles written on recruitment and retention in the volunteer fire service, and training is one of those areas that can be critical to the retention of members. If training is perceived as a waste of time (due to lack of organization, lack of variability in topics, etc.), the members are not motivated to sacrifice their time to attend future training.
The purpose of this article is to share and document the experiences of one volunteer fire department trying to establish an organized and efficient training program. With that in mind, I will outline a few key important areas that we have found to be instrumental when developing the training calendar for the year for a volunteer fire department.
Organization and Planning
Organization is paramount when planning training out for the year and having a framework for developing a training calendar is extremely useful. For my department, we first laid out the mandatory and required training that must be done on an annual basis. Laying this out right away on paper helps us prioritize and plan around these important pieces and visualize what months we still have to plan for. It also ensures that this mandatory training is being accounted for, and not being placed on the back burner and forgotten about until the last minute.
For the remaining months of the year, we then start off with a general topic area (i.e. firefighting, rescue, hazmat, etc.). The purpose of this is to provide variety, and space topics out. It also helps to ensure that we are providing an even balance of the various disciplines that firefighters need to be trained on. Once the general topic idea for the month is chosen, we go into selection of the specific topic. I used a shared Microsoft Word document via OneDrive with the other department instructors to allow improved collaboration and coordination in the creation of the calendar. In today’s modern volunteer service, many people are busy trying to balance all the other commitments going on in their lives; we found it incredibly difficult to assemble all of the department’s instructors in one place at one time that was not either an emergency call or training. Incorporating the use of technology into the planning process has helped tremendously.
To further assist with gathering input on training, we chose to conduct a survey of the training program with our membership. In addition, another purpose of this survey was to give an opportunity for the membership to mold the direction of the department’s training. This survey was nothing spectacular–it was a few questions, with a focus on gathering input on the topics the membership felt are important, the relevancy of the topics provided over the course of the year, and finally suggestions and ideas that the membership would like to receive training on. A QR code was created for the link to the survey and members scanned it and completed it all on their cell phones prior to a training night.
A final important aspect of the development of the training calendar is to put the schedule out there for the department to see. Certain departmental events have a fixed schedule–for example, our monthly meeting is the second Wednesday of each month, and our monthly training night is the last Wednesday of each month. Many resources suggest keeping a fixed schedule as much as possible for simplicity on the volunteers. However, training only once a month is not remotely close to being enough in today’s fire service. In the past, the company officers would try to host company-level training sessions–these trainings were widely appreciated when there was advance notice on the session. To remedy this, we are planning these extra training dates out for the entire year, or at a minimum quarterly. This is to allow the membership to plan around and attempt to make accommodations to attend. Additionally, we are hosting these trainings at a variety of times each month, on the recommendation of Buckman et al. (2022), so that we can accommodate different work schedules beyond the typical nine to five. To accomplish this, we are asking more of the company officers and empowering them to select topics they feel are important. The ultimate goal of these extra trainings is to then provide a “throwback to the basics” and leave the regularly scheduled monthly training as the more advanced and integrated training night.
Training Subjects
When selecting these specific topics, it’s recommended to get out into your response area and analyzing existing hazards, current and historical incident trends, and after-incident reviews and debriefs. All of these can help the training officer with topic selection or at least narrow the focus in. In my area, we have a mixture of high-end residential homes, apartment complexes, multi-hotels, variety of commercial occupancies, and light industrial and processing facilities. We also have a small airport that is frequented by single engine hobby aircraft, a section of railroad, and a busy section of interstate that we are also responsible for.
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From the feedback of the training survey discussed above, many members wanted more training on the rescue side of the fire department. This is great because it showed that the membership wants more training, but we still cannot look over the more mundane skills such as ground ladders or equipment refamiliarization. A unique challenge that our department is trying to overcome is the vast gap in experience and average shift to a much younger department. Because of this, there is a balancing act of providing more advanced level training as well as providing introductory training. The volunteers’ time is valuable and is important to respect that as such. Providing high quality and relevant training is of utmost importance. If the member perceives training as a waste of time, boring, or irrelevant, we risk losing that individual.
Delivery
The final component where we have attempted to monitor and change training is the actual delivery of the training sessions. A common complaint in the past has been extended classroom time and death by PowerPoint. To combat this, we have established a goal of 30 minutes to provide classroom instruction to maximize the hands-on opportunity. PowerPoint and classroom time still serve an important purpose, particularly when discussing safety hazards or introduction to the topic. There are myriad resources out there on how to provide effective classroom lessons—you just need to open any fire service instructor textbook to read about different methods.
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When providing the hands-on drills, I have found engagement of the senior members to teach the skills to be instrumental for a couple of reasons. One, it allows the senior members to become engaged and invested with the topic. Two, I am a firm believer of the idea that teaching is one of the best ways to learn and retain information. This may help to further build connections between members of the department, especially between the newer and older members.
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Hosting a fire department training can be a complicated and sometimes stressful event. Yet, it is vital to the success of the department to carry out its mission in the protection of life and property. The goal of this article is to share the experiences of one volunteer department working to improve its own training program. We found three different areas were pivotal in influencing this improvement in the training program: organization and planning, selection of training subjects and finally, the delivery of the training.
RESOURCE
Nick Buckley, NRP is a firefighter/paramedic for Sioux City (IA) Fire-Rescue, where he also serves as a technician of the regional hazardous materials response team. Additionally, he volunteers as a firefighter/paramedic with North Sioux City (SD) Fire Department as the primary training officer for the department. He is a certified fire instructor in the State of South Dakota and a member of the South Dakota Society of Fire Service Instructors.
