EMMITSBURG, Md – Charlie Dickinson, Acting USFA Administrator, announced today that the Nation’s first-responders can now take two new Incident Command System review courses online through the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) Virtual Campus.  These new scenario-based courses are intended as a review of fundamental ICS concepts and principles for the student prepared to take intermediate or advanced-level ICS training, or for those who need a refresher in ICS.

“The U.S. Fire Administration continues to move forward in their efforts to ensure the Nation’s first responders have available to them, the most current ICS body of knowledge,” said Acting USFA Administrator Charlie Dickinson.  “Our firefighters and first responders face numerous challenges in their communities, and these courses further ensure the effectiveness and safety of our response and recovery responsibilities.”

The USFA, the Emergency Management Institute, and the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, in cooperation with the NIMS Integration Center, have jointly developed ICS 100 through ICS 400 courses based on standard learning objectives.  ICS 300 and ICS 400 are classroom-based courses. All of the ICS courses are based on standard learning objectives and are considered equivalent in terms of meeting NIMS requirement; NFA’s courses are geared toward ensuring that operational responders can perform ICS functions in an emergency or incident environment.  Information concerning the National Fire Academy (NFA) versions of ICS 300 and ICS 400 are available through State Fire Training agencies.

New ICS courses now available are:

Q-464 – Fundamentals Review for ICS 300.  This course can be utilized as a pre-course module or as remedial training for the classroom version of ICS 300, because this course alone does not meet the training requirements for ICS 300.

Q-464 – Fundamentals Review for ICS 400.  This course can be utilized as a pre-course module or as remedial training for the classroom version of ICS 400, because this course alone does not meet the training requirements for ICS 400.

The two new courses follow the precedent set by the popular on-line interactive ICS training offered on the NETC Virtual Campus, specifically designed for operational responders.  Two of the courses are often used by responders to meet NIMS ICS training requirements:

Q-462 – ICS 100, Introduction to ICS for Operational First Responders.
 
Q-463 – ICS 200, Basic ICS for Operational First Responders.

 These courses can be found at the NETC Virtual Campus http://training.fema.gov/ and then clicking on “Online Training (NETC Virtual Campus)” on the upper left.