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Details for
Hosting a Course Within Your
Department
When you apply to host an
Alabama Fire College course within your department, you may notice changes
to the application forms as well as new policies.
Chiefs and Training
Officers take notice.
The location link to download application forms to host a course has
changed. Please familiarize yourself with the new location and the revision
dates that identify the validity of the form. Please discard any hard copies
of outdated forms.
Forms that are course specific will remain with the course description
otherwise all common forms will be located at the following links:
Certification course forms
Non-Certification course forms
INSTRUCTOR OF RECORD
– When completing the field course application, you will notice that a
section has been added to document the instructor teaching. You must put in
writing what instructor will be teaching the course during the selected day.
If you have any changes to the scheduled instructor, you must notify the
Alabama Fire College by calling our toll-free training hotline at
1-800-241-2467.
CURRENT TEACHING OUTLINE
& PPT – All of the Alabama Fire College teaching outlines and PowerPoint presentations now have a revision date posted on every page of the
teaching outline (except cover page and table of contents) and on the very
first slide of the power point presentation. The Alabama Fire College
Regional Coordinator will be checking what version of the teaching materials
you are using. It is imperative that you have the most current and
up-to-date teaching outline. The NFPA Standards are constantly changing, and
as a result our teaching materials are constantly changing.
List of current teaching outlines.
ZERO TOLERANCE ABSENCE POLICY – All certification courses will have a
zero tolerance absence policy. This means that a student MUST COMPLETE all
portions of a certification course, both classroom and practical. It is the
responsibility of the host fire chief/course coordinator to ensure that
every student meets ALL attendance requirements for certification courses
before taking the certification test.
VOLUNTEER FIRE FIGHTER ABSENCE POLICY
– Students attending the Volunteer Fire Fighter Certification Course MUST
COMPLETE all 160 hours of instruction before taking the certification exam.
Absences from a scheduled course and make-up work should be noted on the
class enrollment sheet. Failure to properly mark absences can result in
disqualification of the instructor from teaching future classes and
disqualification of the host fire chief from hosting future classes
Interpreting the AFC Zero
Tolerance Attendance Policy
A
long-standing Alabama Fire College
requirement is that for a student to learn critical technical knowledge and
skills, the student must attend classes as scheduled. Attendance is
especially important when the student is seeking official certification to
serve as recognition of successful completion of a course. Certification
requirements come not only from state law and Commission regulations, but
also from national accreditation rules. It is possible to train without full
attendance, but not to receive certification.
State
law in Alabama specifically places an obligation on students to complete all
course requirements before being certified in a course. For example, the
Volunteer Fire Fighter certification requires completion of a minimum of 160
hours of instruction. Fire Fighter I certification requires completion of a
minimum 320 hours of instruction with a schedule defined as “reflecting
eight hours per day, five days a week with a minimum of 40 training days,
holidays excepted.”
Resident certification courses are typically compressed into a minimum
40-hour week, with some exceptions. When important technical information is
being taught, and certainly with safety information, it is just not possible
to miss a class and still meet the minimum requirements for certification.
Field
certification courses are more flexible in how the hours are met, but always
remember that they are conducted on the same requirement of total attendance
hours. Conscientious instructors should understand this requirement, and
conscientious fire service students should not expect to get recognition for
coursework not actually completed. Commitment is a student responsibility.
A student who has other priority obligations and who cannot commit to
the time necessary to either study or to attend all classes is simply not
ready to register for the certification course.
How
to handle the flexibility that does exist in field courses is a
responsibility of the host fire chief.
Some true student emergencies may occur that the host chief and instructor
may choose to accommodate. As the person having the responsibility to meet
the attendance requirements of a certification course, the host fire chief
is also in the best position to make a judgment about whether a makeup class
should be granted to a student who has been absent, what kind of excuse
warrants any makeup, and how the makeup hours are accomplished. Absence from
a scheduled course and make-up work must be noted on the class enrollment
sheet.
The
Executive Director of the Alabama Fire College has the final responsibility,
according to state law, “to certify trainees, at all approved levels of
certification, upon their attainments of the requirements for that level.”
Zero tolerance remains an accurate term for the required number of hours:
all hours must be met. This clarification puts the responsibility on the
host fire chief to determine the emergency nature of an absence and the
suitable nature of the makeup.
For more information
regarding the changes to these, contact the Training Division Hotline at
1-800-241-2467.
04/30/04 |
