Meet Sarah Allen the FSC's new Product Development Manager
Ceri Darrell | Friday, January 27, 2012
We are delighted to welcome Sarah Allen to the FSC team in the
newly created role of Product Development Manager. Sarah joins us
on secondment from Avon FRS and brings a wealth of experience from
a range of roles as a serving operational officer with Wiltshire,
Cheshire and Avon FRSs. The product development role is a new one
and has been created to enable the FSC to be more responsive to the
changing needs of the sector and to ensure that the courses that we
offer meet the standards that our customers demand.
Based on customer feedback, peer review and focus groups Sarah
will review and update existing courses, supporting the work of the
College's Strategic Stakeholder group (this includes key
representatives from CFOA, the Local Government Association, the
Chief Fire and Rescue Advisers Unit, Department for Communities and
Local Government and the 3 devolved administrations) to ensure that
all of our courses are current, relevant and delivered in the most
effective way. "Fire and Rescue Services have never been afraid to
say what they think and it's so important that we take the time to
listen carefully, whether we like what we hear or not, to make sure
that we are supporting the sector in a meaningful way" explained
Sarah.
Sarah is also keen to listen to the views of our customers about
new products that the FSC can develop in support of the sector.
Using market analysis, customer focus groups, social media and
specialist working groups, Sarah is keen to ensure that the College
is fully aware of, and is responding to the needs of the Fire and
Rescue Service moving forward.
In addition to the ongoing development of Vocational
Qualifications and in response to growing customer demand and
market analysis carried out by both CLG and KPMG, Sarah is already
starting work on two key product areas for 2012.
In response to a request from our Strategic Stakeholder Board
Sarah has been listening to and will be working with FRSs to
develop new progressive incident command and leadership programmes
for middle and supervisory managers. Using a range of facilitation
styles, including case studies and action learning sets, these
programmes will aim to fill the gaps which FRSs have told us exist
in terms of leadership and its application in specific
non-operational situations.
On the back of the HSE consolidated report we are receiving
growing demand to provide quality assurance to FRSs to help
establish national standards and provide reassurance and validation
to FRSs about the training they currently deliver themselves. Sarah
will be developing a range of QA products, in conjunction with key
partners and FRSs, to support the sector's operational assurance
needs.
If you would like to find out more about what's coming, have
specific feedback about how we could meet your needs better or
would like to get involved with shaping the development of products
here at the College, please contact Sarah on sallen@fireservicecollege.ac.uk
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