What are your feelings about the IFSAC accreditation
process? Now before you jump to your first thoughts of being “For or Against”
IFSAC let’s take a few moments to look at the program as it stands in the State
of Washington.
The IFSAC website relates this: IFSAC was founded in
1990 to establish a new national accreditation system for fire service
certification programs. In 1992, the development of an accreditation system for
fire related degree programs began.
The WSP Fire marshal’s website
relates this: The Fire Protection Bureau was originally accredited by the International
Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC) in 1995. . This world-wide organization includes 114
member entities including 41 states, 10 Canadian provinces, the Republic of
South Africa, Egypt, Germany, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the Sultanate
of Oman, the United Kingdom, the Canadian Armed Forces, and the United States
Department of Defense.
So now that we have a framework for
what IFSAC is. Let’s take a moment to look at how this affects us in our
respective organizations. First of all, it is my opinion that this program is
not going away, as some of its predecessors have done. The national and
international acceptance of this program will compel it to continue. So now the
question we ask ourselves. Do we embrace this relatively new program in our
department, or do we resist it? I for one was one who initially was resistant
to the changes that we needed to make to comply with the accreditation process.
But, as I usually do in these situations I decided to look deeper at the
program, its process and benefits. When
looking at the program, I found that many of the anecdotal points I knew of, or
had related to me were not true. And through the research of the IFSAC program
itself and the Fire Marshal’s administration of it. I found it to be a quality
program with strong backing and some very committed individuals at the Fire Marshal’s office. Individuals who are trying very hard to see this program be
successful in our state. Now, does that mean that there are not bumps in the
road that couldn’t use a little revamping? I think we know that any program we
institute will have issues that need resolved as we roll-out the program. This
is where I address the process. What I have worked hard to identify in my own
situation with our agency is the steps of the process, the issues that we need
to clarify or resolve and how we can embrace this program for the future of the
fire service. One particular area we noticed an alarming trend was in the
written testing. We repeatedly had students who were failing tests. This is one
of the things that got me thinking: Why are these tests are so difficult? By
asking that question at the state level I was invited to participate in a
workgroup of seasoned instructors from around that state and IFSAC
representatives from the Washington state patrol. We were able to identify
through this process test questions that were not really representative of
questions for that particular skill set. The group felt these questions should
be excluded from future tests. We can look forward to these changes in the
coming year. This one opportunity opened
my eyes at how we can get involved in the IFSAC process and make it a credible
program and help the Fire Marshal’s office shape it within its boundaries to be
something we accept and encourage our members to embrace. As far as the future
of the IFSAC program and the benefits to the Fire Service in Washington State.
I would say that we are on the right track with the IFSAC process. The Board of
Training officers is offering IFSAC accreditation for two different levels at
our upcoming conference in February. So we at Training, Safety & Officer Section are committed to seeing
this process continue and will continue to represent the fire service in making
positive steps along with the Washington State Fire Marshal's office to the
IFSAC program. Long term throughout the nation we will see this be a readily transferable
certification much the same way as the National Registry of EMT’s has become.
This will enable our members to take a certification and move from agency to
agency within the state, nation or internationally. But more importantly we
will have members that are all trained to the same basic standard, a standard
that we can build on in our own organizations.
Hurry and register for the February
Training officer’s conference. Hope to see you there!
In the meantime be safe out
there.
By Kurt Stitch
Training, Safety & Officer Section Board Member