Training Officer?

[MTForestFires]

Does your department have a training officer, or do you rely on the other officers to set-up and run training? Currently my department doesn't have a training officer, and I believe our training is suffering due to that fact. I tried to get a training officer position created, but was shot down. The chief says we're going to use a new system and stick to it, but I'm still a little sceptical. Anyone else in my position?

[BURNSEMS]

Howdy, Our Training Officer is just That a Training Officer, He creates a Outline of Activities for the Month includeing EMS and we follow it, its sad to say w/o support from your Chief Officer it may be a Long road to Go,, Keep trying Time is on Your Side

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Here today for a Safer Tomorrow

[iwood51]

I fully agree with the position of a training officer.
1. You will get consistent levels of training from someone who wants to train you, not someone who has to.
2. Some people have a knack for teaching but no leadership skills and some people are natural born leaders but cannot convey their wisdom and knowledge to others.
3. If this position is all that this person has to concern him/herself with, they will be able to do a better job.

just my $.02

P.S. My department doesn't have one.

[This message has been edited by iwood51 (edited January 27, 2000).]

[monte]

Our department has a Training Officer. It's well proven in this department, without an active TO not much gets done. Training has to be scheduled out far enough that everyone knows what's going to happen. It also helps everyone, at least in this volunteer departmen, to make it on time, and stay on time. Definitely better. By the way, what is the "new system"? How do you determine training needs for the department?

[MTForestFires]

The "new system" as hasn't been fully explained to me, but the basics are that the chief and other officers will schedule training, along with input from the firefighters. How do we determine training needs for the department? Good question. For the most part we just go along with a training schedule that's been around forever. After a couple years it gets pretty routine and boring. I guess I'll just have to make the most of this "new system" to try and get some new and more usefull training included.

[craig7404]

In my dept. we have a training officer who doubles as the other fire captain. He is the only one who schedules all training with the rest of the officers sometimes teaching the classes with his approval, as he must sign off on all certification training per the state protocalls, with yearly reports sent in to the state. The fire chief must also sign these reports so the chief cannot be the training officer.

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Good Luck And Be Safe
Captain
Craig Lambert

[SKauffman]

Our department has a training officer who is assigned by the Chief and a training team which determines training needs and assist the training officer with scheduling.

Stay Safe

[knewburn]

I am the training officer here for our dept.and it works.I have the a schedule plotted out for the next 12 months.Keith

[RVFD15]

As of next month our department will have a training officer. Our department has always relied on our officers to handle the training as a group. But as everyone knows our modern times have given all of our officers so much to do that we have decided to make a change. We are placing the Captain in charge of all of the training. This officer will take charge of setting up and posting the drills as well as the handling the paperwork involved. The training its self will still be done by other officers or outside agencies.

[Dickey]

I am one of 2 training officers in my dept. I work with the Capt. of Training and we work out the training schedule for a year in advance with some flexability for things that come up. We look at what is required by the state(certifications, etc), what we need to work on and what we as a department want to do. Sometimes we give a special project to person to research and do a short training on for the group. We train every Tuesday night for 3 hours a night. The first 2 Tuesdays are fire training, the 3rd is EMS training, and the 4th is the monthly staff meeting. If there is a 5th Tuesday in that month then we come up with some special training or extra training where we need to brush up on things.

I think every department needs a training officer. Someone that is motivated and capable of teaching. That officer should be someone with good teaching and organization skills, leadership, and be respected by his/her peers. Im my dept., myself and the training Capt. are line officers resposible for supervision at a fireground as well as the training schedule. The training officer(s) should have the full support of the Chief and be given the authority to handle that responsibility without interference to make a system like that work. I'm lucky, my Chief lets us do what we think is best for the dept. and gives us the means to get it done any way we can.

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Lt. Jason Knecht
Altoona Fire Dept.
Altoona, WI