Issue 56 - New Zealand Fire Service

Each year, between 800 to 1,000
volunteer firefighters work their
way through the recruit precourse
modules before they join a
practical course.
The black and white photocopied
pages of the current training
manuals, while informative, don’t
make for the most exciting
training material – which is why
there’s been a major overhaul.
The new material will be officially
introduced later this year.
“We don’t want training to be a
barrier to being a volunteer,” said
Mitzi Austin, Education Training
Services Manager.
“The new material has been
designed to meet people’s different
learning preferences – the core of
the package is still the printed
workbooks, but they are in full
colour, and are supported by DVDs
so that recruits can see the skills
being performed. The information
is also presented differently – with
lots of photographs, eye-catching
graphics to separate it into different
categories, and each module
has key words and summary
information,” she said.
The end result is easier to
understand and work through,
and much more interesting.
“As part of the overhaul we have
also made sure we only included
what recruits really need to know
and left out additional material
that, while it was nice to know,
wasn’t actually necessary to meet
the requirements of the practical
course.”
Bridgette (left) and Teresa take a
closer look at the new recruit
pre-course information.
The New Zealand Fire Service Magazine
Training News
February 2010
13