By Michael J. Barakey
Development of new company officers is a challenge in today’s fire service. With the retirement of seasoned fire officers affecting many departments, it becomes a struggle to ready firefighters for the role of first-line supervisor. Most departments want experienced and educated firefighters to transition to the role of company officer but struggle to land candidates who are experienced and qualified. They expect competent decisions from new officers but may offer little training. Experience is valuable, but experience alone will not prepare even a seasoned firefighter for these new duties or responsibilities.
To train firefighters for their new role is not an exact science; many models exist. Two methods are emerging as popular ways to prepare firefighters for the role of company officer. These methods are “career path” and “officer’s academy.” Some departments have elected to use a “hybrid” method, requiring both. Both methods have merit and deserve consideration.
Departments desire to avoid promoting firefighters with limited experience and no formal education. A balance exists when determining which method is best for your department, as each model has its benefits and limitations. Each model requires a commitment of the employee and the department. What model is best for your department? A hybrid may provide the most prepared candidate. Choosing a method that fits your department requires careful consideration and approval from the fire chief, human resources department, and city attorney. These requirements are designed not to hinder your progress but to provide validity and value to your program.
CAREER PATH
Career path is a term used to progress interested firefighters into a defined curriculum, which is approved by the training chief, fire chief, human resources director, and legal department. The goal of career path is to provide a clear list of requirements, classes, and education that a firefighter must complete to be eligible to sit for the promotional exam. Firefighters take these career path classes prior to the promotional process and at their own expense and on their own time. The objective is “preparation prior to promotion.”
Career path has advantages and disadvantages. It provides a means of elimination, as the candidate pool is narrowed. When you decide to have prerequisites for eligibility, it eliminates candidates, including seasoned firefighters, who may make excellent company officers but have not completed the required career path classes. As the career path requirements mature, the candidate pool will dwindle, as not every firefighter will desire to take the defined classes or enter the process because of the requirements. Likewise, the firefighters who are eligible and desire promotion will become defined and will continue to enter the process. The numbers of new firefighters eligible to enter the process will replenish and potentially keep the numbers of interested firefighters stable.
Eventually, when the chief promotes an eligible candidate, have career path classes truly prepared the new officer to lead a company? When firefighters receive the call for promotion, are they confident that the classes they were required to take, often years prior to the promotion, prepared them for the seat? Does career path really provide the necessary knowledge and skills to run a company?
Career path classes are any assortment of classes that attempt to prepare a firefighter to ride in the right front seat and supervise. The fire department defines and approves these classes that the potential officer must take to sit for the promotional exam. What classes or educational requirements prepare a firefighter for the role of company officer? An example of career path classes includes the following:
- NFA-Building Construction, 16 hours
- NFA-Arson Detection for First Responders, 16 hours
- NFA-Strategy & Tactics for Initial Company Operations (STICO), 16 hours
- Grammar and Report Writing, 8 hours
- Incident Command-Decision Making, 4 hours
- Incident Command for EMS Incidents, 4 hours
- Strategy and Tactics-Single Family Dwelling Simulation, 4 hours
- Strategy and Tactics-Multi Family Dwelling, 4 hours
- Core Values, Ethics, 4 hours
- In-Station Skills Review (forms, reports, record keeping, etc.), 24 hours
- In-Station Task Book, 48 hours
- Fire Officer 1, 72 hours
- Instructor 1, 48 hours
Career path requirements often include providing documentation that the candidate has an associate degree or 60 credit hours toward a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
The experience angle is covered by requiring all eligible candidates to have a certain number of years on the job to be eligible to take a promotional exam. This will not guarantee experience on the fire or rescue scene, but it will measure organizational experience as time on the job.
OFFICER’S ACADEMY
A proven method of preparing new hires for the position of firefighter is the recruit academy. Fire recruit academies are successful in preparing new hires in the basics of firefighting. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1001, Standard for Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications, outlines the basic skills and knowledge a candidate or recruit must demonstrate, with a defined number of hours for each skill. During the recruit academy, seasoned fire instructors grade, evaluate, and mentor the recruits. Their time in recruit school is just an extension of the hiring process.
Using the recruit school as a model, you can build an officer’s academy. The recruit academy isolates, teaches, mentors, and evaluates the recruit firefighter. Why not use this template to isolate, teach, mentor, and evaluate candidates for promotion? The officer’s academy is designed to bring firefighters who are moving forward in their career to the position of company officer, so the department isolates, trains, and provides expectations of performance in an academy setting.
An officer’s academy returns the candidates for promotion to basics. It provides the core expectations of a company officer in a didactic setting. The desire is to provide departmental and organizational expectations, best practices, desires, policies, and procedures so the new officer has a basic knowledge for performing.
The officer’s academy should include classes designed around leadership, strategy and tactics, communications, buddy to boss, performance appraisals, ethics, discipline and grievances, emergency operations and disaster planning, health and safety, risk management, basic budgeting, and policy expectations. The academy should be performed over two weeks at a location away from normal fire instruction. Pick a location such as a community college or a higher education facility in your city. Have the attendees temporarily assigned for the two-week period and not report to operations during the academy. Establish a dress code, and run the academy in a professional manner.
Figure 1 is a sample schedule for an officer’s academy.
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HYBRID OF CAREER PATH/OFFICER’S ACADEMY
A hybrid allows interested firefighters to take classes as a foundation and then supplement the existing foundation with the officer’s academy. The hybrid model provides the department with the opportunity to use existing programs such as Fire Officer 1 and the National Fire Academy’s leadership series as the building blocks for potential officers. Using NFPA 1021, Standard for Fire Officer Professional Qualifications, as a model, build your career path and officer’s academy to complement each other. An extensive career path may not be required when you use a hybrid. The hybrid allows flexibility when determining the extent of career path, educational requirements, and officer’s academy curriculum. Following is an example of a hybrid career path and officer’s academy.
To become eligible to test for first-line supervisor, complete the following:
- Have a defined numbers of years on the job (i.e., 6 or 8 years).
- Be a Master Firefighter (this requires its own career path).
- Fire Officer 172 hours.
- Instructor 148 hours.
- Associate degree or 60 credit hours toward a bachelor’s degree.
Once the candidate is placed on the eligibility list, he will attend the officer’s academy.
WHAT IS BEST FOR YOUR DEPARTMENT?
Any development is better than no development. Make a commitment to develop your firefighters for the role of company officer. When considering the above methods, consider the time needed to develop the program and career path. You will need time to gain the approval of your chief and legal department and will need to commit funding to ensure members are able to attend an academy. Take an active role in preparing for your department’s future; develop a plan and act.
Michael J. Barakey is a battalion chief with the Virginia Beach (VA) Fire Department, assigned to operations. He previously served in the training division, as the chief of training. Barakey is a hazmat specialist, an instructor III, a national registered paramedic, and a plans team manager for VA-TF2 US&R Team and has a master of public administration degree from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He is a classroom instructor for FDIC.
