Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robert on March 25, 2009 at 9:12pm

I am in a almost identical situation. Also in Michigan. Where are you located? I just took over a training officer for our new chief. And I need any ideas that other departments may have.

Permalink Reply by Chris Miller on April 8, 2009 at 7:11pm

You can do a needs assessment of your department based on the type and volume of calls, past training records, experience levels of personnel, a survey of personnel, and so on. Another good tool for formulating training schedules is to conduct Post Incident Analysis or critiques. These need to be constructive, not destructive, but by identifying what went right and what went wrong you can design the next weeks or months training schedule to correct the wrongs.

There are always the have to do things as well, SCBA, Haz Mat, etc. You can use resources like NFPA 1410 for some training evolutions, check out Everyonegoeshome.com and other similar web sites for training topics.

Check and find out what requirements Michigan might have and so on. Best advise is try not to do too much too fast. Shoot for quality not quantity and never ask the crews to do something you would not do or have not done yourself.

Permalink Reply by Paula MacDonald on May 5, 2009 at 6:17pm

I took over as Training Officer a year ago. Attendance was down, moral was down and I needed to find a way to get people to show up for training. We use the Essentials of Firefighting for most of our trainings. We believe that you need basics of Firefighting for everyone, however we try to make it fun. Instead of learning to advance hose lines and pump practice, we turn it into a fun competition, advancing the lines with a fog, going to a certain point, knocking something off a pylon. It is something that we can do in teams, have fun, do it over and over and learn as well. Once you have a few "fun" trainings word will get out that the members are enjoying the training. Hopefully one by one they will work their way back. We also have monthly SCBA drills. NFPA suggests you breath a tank of air regularly. We do vitals before, immediately after, and in five minute intervals so see how long it takes each member to recover. They enjoy this as well. Or we just go on a hike in BA with heavy items as if we were lugging to a call. In the middle of the winter I even gave up on the firefighting and did an evening of teambuilding exercises. Lots of ideas on the web. You could feel the excitement in the room after that night as everyone learned how to work as a team. We started with volunteers. They were each blindfolded and given a piece of paper. They were given vague instructions how to fold it, tear holes in it, so at the end all were different. This shows how instructions given must be clear and concise. By the end of the evening we were passing members back and forth through a string three feet off the air. Be creative. Keep the members involved, and stick to Level 1 ideas and your trainings will start to pick up.