As 2004 comes to a close departments look towards their 2005 plans, and training schedules are often at the top of the plan. For any training officer this can be a daunting task, but it does not have to be. Good planning can help you to accomplish all of your goals while keeping members interested and involved.
To start off I would like to show you a method that was presented at the FireRescue Expo (http://www.firerescueexpo.com) in Vegas. The session entitled “Your 2005 Drill Schedule” was presented by Greg Jakubowski and Eddie Buchanan. The format they presented gave a great way to brainstorm and start your planning. Simply enough, they broke the drill schedule into drills that you MUST do, SHOULD do, and things you would like to add or upgrade.
The first step is to put your officers, and possibly members in a room to throw out ideas. Make sure whoever is leading the discussion sticks to the three categories as it will help you to prioritize your training. Any idea is good at this stage.
The MUST do category takes up a bulk of any training schedule and includes classes such as SCBA, Blood Borne Pathogens, CPR, Hazmat, etc. What training you are required to do varies by area along with how often you are required to do it. For example some areas may require training to keep up your wildfire card while here in Connecticut it is not a requirement.
The one caution I will give you on the MUST do category is to make sure that you truly are required to do the training. Too often members say ‘OSHA says’ or the like without facts or research. Many ‘requirements’ have roots in the department’s own feelings, strength and weaknesses or even just what the officer’s ‘favorite’ topic is.
Once you have labeled what you MUST do, the next segment is to lay out topics that you SHOULD do. This category is the catch all for items in between what you MUST do, and things you would like to add or would be nice to do. For example, you SHOULD do new vehicle training such as hybrid cars, but it is not necessarily something you MUST do.
The next category looks at things you would like to add or upgrade. This may be as simple as going from HAZMAT awareness to operational or as intensive as adding technical rescue to your skill set. Chances are this category will get filled fast. Everyone has ideas about what they would like to see the department do. The challenge is, after the MUSTs and SHOULDs, there will not be much room for the add ons.
Once you have your lists, now it is time to sit down and figure out how to accomplish your goals in the limited amount of time we have. Here’s how I started, good old excel to the rescue. First I sat with a calendar and picked out all of the drill dates for the year. Be very aware of holidays, company functions and any other possible reasons for drill cancellations.
Once you know how many drills, and hours of the drills, you can determine how many topics can be covered. Going back to the MUST list, take a look at what can be combined. How about combining SCBA training with HAZMAT training? Or combining BBP with CPR? Combining topics will save time and allow you to get to some of the topics you would otherwise have missed.
One of the things I tried last year was doing a ‘mandatory drill Saturday’. If you take your OSHA requirements and combine them you can accomplish the goals in one 8 hour session. While members may be reluctant to give up their weekend if you offer food and explain to them that the drill covers their mandatory drills you might be surprised by the turnout. (Haven’t we all realized that firefighters will do just about anything for food? :))
With the MUST drills out of the way it is time to tackle the SHOULDs and add-ons. A nice technique is to group similar drills together and build on skills from the previous drill. You might group SCBA, Search and Rescue, Live Burn and RIT together. Grouping drills allows you to add on or upgrade skills without having to review the basics first.
The downside of grouping is that you want to mix up the ‘dry’ material with more exciting drills. If your members know that February is the ‘boring’ month, they will be less likely to attend. Try doing one drill night of classroom followed by one night of practicals. This alternating pattern will help to address those learners who do better with skills and those who are ‘book smart’.
Now that we have the topics chosen, the next task is to find the right instructor for each. My loyal readers know that it is one of my hot spots that you should not have one instructor do all of the teaching. Enlist your officers to teach at least one drill each. Find members who have specialties in each area. Drill with your mutual aid companies and trade instructors. Whatever you do, make sure you get a commitment from your instructors and assure that they will plan to be there.
Once you have your schedule done, it is time to give it to the wolves and see what they do. You want your members to be involved in training, back the program and commit to being there. Be prepared to defend the schedule and have your MUSTs and SHOULDs on hand. Those members who did not participate in the brainstorming will be the ones to yell the loudest, but you need to keep them in check. Explain what the plan is, and what you plan on accomplishing with it.
Some training officers think that posting the drills is detrimental to attendance, but the opposite is true. The challenge is to make the training worthwhile and to ‘sell’ your members on attending. Showing that you plan ahead will go a long way and demonstratethe level of professionalism you are investing in their training program.