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Keeping members interested in training.
Ok. I have a small (actually big) situation on my department, and I'm looking for some input from others. I'm sharing Training Officer duties with another member, and since we've started it seems that our training regime has gone for a tumble (I work shift work, and out of town, so I'm not always around). Participation is low, and the other ffs just don't seem as interested as they used too. I'm looking for any and all advice on how to keep things running smoothly.
As it is, we have 28 members on our department. More then half of which have less then 3 years experience (we have a high turn over rate).
Any words of wisdom will be greatly appreciated.
As it is, we have 28 members on our department. More then half of which have less then 3 years experience (we have a high turn over rate).
Any words of wisdom will be greatly appreciated.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Heather on
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we have the same problem in our department. We have one training a month so that it works out with everyones schedule and yet only about 7 out of 20 show up. What I have recommended to my chief and I am going to recommend to you is this ask the members what they want to learn each training. If its something you have beaten down like a dead cow them maybe do a small review and then do something new. That way they feel like they are getting better educated and you can throw your own thing in there. If its something new I would roll with it as long as it pretains to the things you do around there. For instance we have a few wildland fires here and there around here, but it has never been a big problem so we go over it once a year. NowUsing the jaws is a training we do a lot one because we just a got all new jaws set up and because that is 90% of our calls. You just have to find ways to make it interesting and fun and make sure that it is something that everyone wants to learn. So again I say ask the other members and get them involved. And hey if the problem is the person you are sharing the duties with then maybe its time for a new training officer.
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Permalink Reply by reece on
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Like everyone else i to feel your pain, I have had the same problem but we do not have the numbers you do but what i see happing on my department is that during trainning the ones not involved in the drill stop for a smoke break or yet just want to bring up the past. So i asked our capt. to help me out and we are going to keep them interested in the drills by dividing them up and having two different classes for about an hour and half each class. also i have seen a fire dept. that makes the members put on a class and talking to there chief about it he said that if you put them in that spot, infront of everyone they will learn everything about the drill so that they do not seem like fools. But whatever works, just from my expierence you have got to keep them interested and people in general like to learn new and interesting things, and you might try putting a timer on everything you do because i have seen that when you make it a race everyone wants to win
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Permalink Reply by Emily on
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You can try interactive 3D training. There are many types of this training, several of them are FREE. My company makes one of those free ones You can download it from our website at www.code3d.com. We've been told that people get really into the scenarios and are more attentive and engaged. Goodluck!
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Permalink Reply by Tim on
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Hey Sara how are you? Well i've been in the fire service along time and what keeps people interested is to do diffrent things. We drill every Thursday evening and we have a turnout of about 15 members. We run a truck and an engine so there is always things to do. We also looked into vacant buildings in our town and worked with the fire marshals office and our Dept. of Health and got burn permits and had live fire training, not only did it help our firefighters recieve some great training but it helped our community by removing the vacant properties for them. Our biggest thing we try and do is to mix things up every week. We have used our local school and smoked a classroom up with the fake smoke and did search drills, But we called it in as a structure assignment drill and had everyone respond level 3 but had them react like it was the real deal, it worked out great. Hope that this helps Tim
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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I have a former member of my department who went back to his former department and was helping them with their training. He was telling me about the lack of motivation he was experiencing. His guys would show up for training and stand around jaw-jacking. He said something to his training officer one night and was told something to the effect "if you can motivate them, more power to you". He went out to the apparatus bay and said; "lets do some training". After waiting for a short while, he said he called his dispatcher on the phone and asked them to tone out a structure fire. The dispatcher inquired as to what address, and he told them to make something up. Well the tones dropped, guys are running around like the Keystone Cops, or like a bunch of ants (for the younger generation) grabbing and donning gear. As they started to mount the trucks, he stopped them and announced; "Ok, now that we are dressed, lets do some training'! Sounds kinda throwed off, but he got their attention. Now I know this is not doable in my department and probably not in many others either. But sometimes you have to rattle the cage to get their attention.
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Permalink Reply by Dustin on
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Well Sarah, you have an in interesting situation it seems. I am still a wet behind the ears firefighter but I have been around it literally my entire life. If you have noticed my profile states that my father was the Fire Marshal of Mexia Texas for a number of years and is now a State Deputy marshal. He’s been in the service for 30 yrs and for as long as I can remember he has always been placed in some sort of a leadership role. When I was just a pup he was the president of the reserves for Mexia and handled coordinating their training. As well as working along side the training officer for Mexia even before he was marshal. I would sit in at meetings and just watch and learn. Each shift has their own form of training during down time in the station whether it be EMS or fire. There are always plenty of abandoned houses that have been acquired by the city and once a month we have live training burns in which we also invite the surrounding volunteer departments to participate in. what firefighter passes up the chance to light something on fire and put it out? The importance of all forms of training should be impressed on every firefighter, from the chief who knows everything right down to the new rookie fresh from the academy that also knows everything. Training can come in several forms such as guest specialist speakers in a classroom, hands on training, or interactive computer simulations. A firefighter could go 10+ years with never seeing a swift water rescue situation, but that doesn’t mean that situation will never occur in his or her career. For Mexia the nearest “swift water rescue” team is 35 miles away in Corsicana. What if your victim doesn’t have that kind of time and you are caught with thumbs up @s***? Not the ideal situation. But more than just the obvious applications, such as firefighters being more capable, is financial. There are all sorts of government grants out there for paid AND volunteer departments just waiting for you, but the catch is keeping up to date with the training. This is more than enough for a training captain and officers to want to put the pressure on their crews to learn. Now I am really not sure how to flex the muscle, but it looks like plenty of these other guys do. As far as your volunteers go its simple. If you don’t do it, you don’t ride. I know many a volunteer who just wants to wear the t-shirt and turn on the lights, but when it comes to the training they can’t seem to find the time. I understand that volunteers live other lives. They have jobs and families to support, but if they truly care about what they are doing, then they’ll show up when they aren’t given a choice per say. This doesn’t mean you should expect every volunteer to make every meeting. Its just not possible. But their needs to be a required number sessions they attend. If they can find the time to jump on the truck and go to the scene, then they have the time to learn how to first. Most accidents occur with volunteers on the scene from either poor uniform command, or poor training. A department is stronger with larger numbers, but those larger numbers become a hindrance when you have 30 people on scene tripping over each other because they don’t know what to do. I am friends with the assistant chief of Wortham and like any other chief of a volunteer department, he knows the importance of that grant money...as well as capable personnel. Remember kiddies “Knowledge is Power!!!”
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Permalink Reply by Rodney(LFD-IAFF L 334) on
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I have only one thing to say here and its nothing against you at all. If a firefigher is dedicated to his job he should not need any motivation to train or go to training classes. Every department has this problem but for me I love to go train because if your not out training your not keeping up with new things going on in the fire service. Like I have heard before you train to save your life.
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Permalink Reply by Rick - BFD327 on
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Hey Sarah, I just wanted to add my 2 cents on this subject, maybe it'll help. I too share Training Officer duties with another member on our department. We are a small town,rural department with 25 members, 100% volunteer. 5or 6 of our members have joined the department in the last year. We have a Business meeting on the 1st Thursday of the month and a Training meeting on the 3rd Thursday of the month. I believe that it is crucial to have everyone on the department trained to the same level as much as is possible,so when we arrive on a scene, everyone in that truck knows what needs to be done and we can work as a team! 6 out of the 12 Training meetings we make mandatory, such as SCBA, Jaws/Extrication,Truck Driving, Pump Operations, etc. Those guys that want to drive the Big Red Trucks or be the 1st Team in on Entry had better have attended the Trainings or they won't be doing it! I'm sorry, but just being a warm body with a pair of hands just doesn't cut it anymore. If they are not willing to Train then they are a liability!! Those that are devoted to the job will do what needs to be done, those that will not, well maybe you're better off with a smaller number of members on your Department. Maybe I sound like a hard ass but, if you are the 1st Team in on Entry, who would you want backing you up on that hoseline?
Now, what has seemed to work for us. First of all if you are going to make training Mandatory, you have to set up a time for Make-up. Not everybody is going to be able to make every meeting.
The most important thing, I believe, is make it hands on! Everyone learns more by doing than just watching someone else! Make it interesting, use your imagination,we set up an obstacle course for air-pac training, throw everything imagineable in there and let them deal with it. We set up fog machines, reduce the visibility to squat, give em' a flashlight and send them in. No, its not the same thing as live fire but nobody screws up and dies either! Set up a mock MVA, make it as life-like as possible. Everybody loves to turn a junk car into a pile of scrap with a set of jaws and cutters!
No matter what subject you are training on you can make it interesting,change it up, remember, use your imagination, the sky's the limit. Put 20 guys together and it'll turn into a competition. The seasoned guys will be showing the rookies how to Git-R-Done, the rookies will be proving they have what it takes! Hopefully everyone will be learning,honing existing skills, meshing as a team, and having fun all at the same time! Remember, do it safely! We learn from our mistakes! Let's train in a setting where making a mistake doesn't cost someone their life! If we can't come home from training safe and sound then, God, Help us all when the real call comes in!
One more thing, this year we are going to split up the Department into small groups, assign them each a training to instruct, get everyone involved, maybe get some new ideas and lighten our load at the same time . After all, being an all volunteer department, we all have outside jobs, lives, and families.
Well, I hope maybe some of this helped. GOOD LUCK! STAY SAFE!
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Permalink Reply by firemanchad on
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One thing I can say is to scare them by telling them the truth. I know if you do not train and then have a fire and God forbids gets hurt or even dies the state does not have to pay. Then you must go through the hassle of the court being sued from the family. Now you might say we are a vol. department. Give them the example that the state can and will come in and shut the department down if you do not have the necessary records for them, then the tax payers will pay due to higher tax rates and make it hard for the people in the department as well as others. Hope this helps. I am no expert but I have scene this happen around.
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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A couple of ideas-
* Make it a condition of holding a senior position, that they MUST facilitate X number of sessions per year. (This shares the workload around)
* Get external instructors, such as from a neighbouring department. (This ensures that the members are not sitting and hearing the same person week in week out)
* Do a Training Needs Analysis of the department. (What do they want to do? What does the response types indicate you should focus on (ie: Why do extrication if your #1 response is scrub fire?), etc)
* Do a Skills Gap Analysis. (I assume there must be some sort of benchmark guidance on minimum skills. Who has them, who doesn't?)
* Find a "champion" in the Officers that will promote the training. (If it doesn't come from the top, then you won't get jack support from the members.)
* Make training fun, and even a bit competitive when it comes to drills.
* Put up on the wall a massive chart that shows what skills everyone does and doesn't have. Do this after the Skills Gap Analysis. (It shows everyone who's up to where, and in some cases can covertly shame some members into participating a bit more actively)
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Permalink Reply by wayne jenkins on
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i took on the training at our dept and im haven the same problems i have a couple that really want to learn but there are some that just want to come there to bs and play around i have the support of my top but that dont seem to help ive got some that the only thing they show up for is a call but wont help out any other time we are 100%vol and cant afford to lose what help we do have
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Be careful using charts. If someone files a discrimination complaint, these can come back to haunt you.
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