Programs.
Each program is assembled around what one organization needs its people to be able to do.
A conservation corps crew learning to work fuels safely needs something different from a fire agency adding prescribed-fire capability. The method is the same in both cases: establish the standard your crews have to meet, select the courses that meet it, deliver them on your site, and certify to recognized standards.
Come to us with the problem. Turning it into a program is our job, and the consultation is free.
An example of a recent program, in full.
A California conservation corps needed eighteen crew members able to carry out fuels reduction work safely, and employable in fire work afterwards. The program ran at their own site, classroom and field, in the sequence below: fire behavior and human factors first, then ground skills, then equipment.
Chainsaw operations were taught at one instructor to every six students, and the daily schedule followed the corps’ existing shift pattern rather than ours.
That was one organization’s requirement. Yours will be different, and the program follows it.
Some of the courses that can go into your program.
Every program is built to what your organization needs. What gets asked for tends to fall into four categories, and courses appear under more than one of them, because most of them serve more than one kind of work.
01Wildland Fire Training & Workforce Development
Fireline qualification
S-130 / S-131 Firefighter Type 1 · S-190 Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior · S-290 Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior · RT-130 Annual Fireline Safety Refresher · S-215 Fire Operations in the Wildland Urban Interface · S-211 Portable Pumps & Water Use · S-270 Basic Air Operations · Basic Land Navigation, PMS-475
Incident command
ICS-100 · ICS-200 · ICS-300 · IS-700 National Incident Management System
Saw and equipment
S-212 Wildland Fire Chainsaws · advanced faller training and recertification · Train-the-Trainer, chainsaw and tree felling · chipper, pole saw and weed eater operations and maintenance
Leadership and instruction
L-180 Human Factors in the Wildland Fire Service · L-280 Followership to Leadership · Ethical Leadership · supervisory development · junior management · leadership and senior leadership
Safety and medical
AHA Heartsaver CPR, AED and First Aid · fireline EMT · CSTI Hazardous Materials First Responder, Operational and Awareness · Confined Space Rescue Awareness · Incident Safety Awareness for Hired Equipment Vendors
Workforce readiness
Mental health and wellness · résumé writing and interview skills
02Community Hardening & Wildfire Planning
Training
Home Ignition Zone, home hardening and defensible space · S-215 Fire Operations in the Wildland Urban Interface
Assessment
Community and homeowner risk assessments · hardening inspections with written reports
Planning
Community Wildfire Protection Plan formulation and support · CWPP development for tribal organizations and their partners
03Fuels Mitigation & Prescribed Fire
Treatment
Fuels Reduction Methods & Techniques · firebreak implementation · roadside fuels reduction
Planning and review
Wildfire Mitigation Planning & Reporting · treatment-effectiveness reviews
Prescribed fire
Burn Boss, Prescribed Fire & Pile Burning · cultural burning with Native sovereign nations
Supporting qualification
S-130 / S-131 Firefighter Type 1 · S-190 Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior · S-211 Portable Pumps · S-290 Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior · CA-219: Wildland Firefighting – Firing Operations
04Grant-Ready Partnership
Not courses, but the fourth thing organizations ask for.
Before the money moves
Scope development · budget and deliverable language · training schedules · outcome measures
Getting to delivery
Field implementation planning · site-readiness review · CEQA coordination
Through to close-out
Roster and course-completion documentation · reporting support
What else is in the program.
The courses are centered around specific certifications. What the students walk away with is much more than that.
Our instructors are career fire and forestry professionals, and students spend every day of the program working next to them. That is where the rest of it comes from: the work ethic, how to communicate in a team, how to take direction and how to give it, the hands-on skills that only come from watching someone who has done the job for many years. Students see what a professional looks like and how one works, and they start to work that way.
Mentoring and coaching are part of that — one on one, in the course of the training. We are invested in the whole individual, not only the certificate.
Behavioral health and peer support are part of the course content. So are physical training and work-capacity readiness, team building and crew cohesion, among others.
We teach people from all walks of life: Native American tribal members, inner-city youth, veterans, Spanish-speaking crews taught in Spanish. The standard is the same for every crew. The delivery is adjusted to who is in the room.
What your people leave with.
A certificate is issued for each course completed. Who issues it depends on the course, and that is what gives the credential its standing beyond your own organization.
We teach to recognized standards and certify to them. Where the program qualifies, it also carries position task-book eligibility, including the Firefighter Type 1 task book. The certification stays with the individual.
So do the skills. We help organizations develop their people for a career in fire or forestry, and for work beyond the fireline. Work ethic applies everywhere, and it goes with the student wherever they go.
For organizations building their people past the crew, the same programs carry résumé and interview skills, supervisory development, junior management and leadership. Those go with the student too.
Tell us what your crews need to be qualified for.
Tell us the requirement, the site and the funding position. The program is put together from there.
A member of our Integrated Fire Management team will get back to you within one business day.