College named Regional National Training Award winner 2010

J Basford | Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Fire Service College has been honoured with another prestigious National Training Award in recognition of its outstanding contribution to training, learning and development in the workplace.

The College and Staffordshire FRS were recognised in the Partnership and Collaboration Award category and are delighted to have won the Regional National Training Award at the West Midlands Regional Ceremony on 21 October 2010.  

The award recognises both organisations' contribution to the development of a Bespoke Incident Command Foundation course to help tackle an increasing incidence of firefighter injuries.  To date 430 employees from Staffordshire have undertaken the technical training and 54 have completed the bespoke Incident Command practical course.  Within two years, the number of operational injuries within Staffordshire FRS has reduced by almost half.  A follow-up survey revealed that about 75 per cent of trainees had already used the incident command skills they had just acquired in real life incidents.

Staffordshire FRS's Head of Training, Bob Dagless, said: "We are delighted to have won this award. A lot of hard work goes into the training of firefighters and we have a long history of collaboration and secondment with the Fire Service College.  We initially instigated the training but it was developed in close conjunction with the College, we couldn't have achieved what we have without the partnership approach."

Several other FRS's in the country are keen to implement the programme in their respective organisations, based on the above results.

Kim Robinson, Chief Executive of the Fire Service College said "This prestigious award is testimony to the hard work and collaborative approach taken by everyone involved in the development of this training and I am delighted with such a positive outcome.   Further, it reinforces our commitment to the UK FRS in their work to ensure firefighter safety and protect lives."

(Nicola Lown and Terry Considine from the Fire Service College accept the Partnership and Collaboration NTA awards with Alan Bateman and Chris Berry from Staffordshire FRS)

Ends

Note to Editors:

1.         For details of the National Training Awards, follow the weblink: http://www.nationaltrainingawards.com/

2.         For more information, contact:

Juliet Basford, Marketing Executive, the Fire Service College

Email: jbasford@fireservicecollege.ac.uk

FSC website: www.fireservicecollege.ac.uk