Designing and Documenting Standards-Based Training

Designing and Documenting Standards-Based Training

Jonathan Jones, SC State Fire Marshal

The role of the Fire Department Training Officer/Instructor is daunting. Conducting training for initial certification and on-going maintenance of skills devours a lot of the Training Officer’s time. Conducting training is the easy part. In designing training programs and schedules, today’s Training Officer/Instructor must balance all of the operational needs of the Fire Department with meeting all of the regulatory requirements of entities, like OSHA, and the compulsory requirements of entities, like ISO. Each entity requires your training documentation to report the same training sessions in a different way. In addition, the new proposed Federal Rule for Emergency Response requires the documentation of annual skills checks. How is all of this incorporated into a training plan and training documentation? This program will walk the participant through the different requirements for each of the main outside entities; how they require training to be categorized and what they want documented. The program will also provide guidance and best practices for designing training sessions that meet all of the requirements at once – maximizing the efficiency of time and effort. Additionally, the program will provide the participant with a variety of ways to document training sessions so that all of the internal and external reporting requirements are met with a single entry in your department’s training records.