Merriam-Webster defines academia as “the life, community or world of teachers, schools and education” and training as “the skill, knowledge or experience acquired by one that trains.” Put another way, academia relates to education, theory and knowledge, and training relates to skills and what to do to survive.
Academically, in the past 20 years, fire science programs gained great popularity across the United States, but do these college programs replace training academies? No, these are two very different entities. Think of it this way: To become a doctor, you must learn academically about the human body (theory) before you do surgery (skill).
So, the purpose of a fire academy is to introduce the theory of firefighting in a classroom and to practice the skills that are taught in the classroom on the drill field. That said, this bears the question: Is an academy class worth college credit? The answer to that: Maybe.
Certificates vs. credit hours
Many firefighters will walk into a college with a folder full of certificates from training classes that they attended during their career and want to know how many college credits those training classes are worth. Many times, the training class certificates aren’t worth many college credits, if any.
In an academic environment, the transfer of learning credit depends on numerous factors. One of these factors is the amount of contact hours. One credit hour is equal to 15–16 hours of instruction. Your credit hours are calculated over the full semester, which generally is 16 weeks. Most lecture and seminar courses are worth three credit hours. You must complete at least 45–48 hours of class time in one semester. This averages to about three hours of classroom time per week for the full 16-week semester. Most training classes that firefighters attend are just a few hours, but others can require up to 80 hours or more of attendance by the firefighter. This is where the college registrar will evaluate many aspects of that class.
Another very important factor is the overall rigor of the course that was taught. This doesn’t mean how difficult it was to assemble a raker or a shore, but the theory part of the training. Was reading involved? Was there a testing component? Were there labs? The answer to these questions will lead to the amount of credit, if any, that is awarded.
Educational evaluation entities, such as the American Council on Education, evaluate private, public and military training programs and make recommendations as to whether a training course meets the criteria of a college academic course. The recommendation is made after a stringent evaluation process. The recommendation could be for certificate, lower division or upper division academic or the amount of credit hours to which the training course equates. After all of these evaluations, it still is up to the individual college to accept the recommendation.
Textbooks vs. manuals
The U.S. Fire Administration’s Fire and Emergency Services Higher Education (FESHE) committees have helped in a major way to bridge the gap between training and academia. The FESHE committees are composed of fire practitioners who also are educators. The original task of the FESHE committees was to write a model fire science-based curriculum that comprises a core group of classes that, in the opinion of these committees, would be an asset to the fire service.
At the beginning, the focus was on the associate degrees, bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees curriculum. As the years passed, the course curriculum has evolved into almost every aspect of the fire and emergency services.
Twenty or more years ago, there were many training manuals but not many academic texts that addressed the fire and emergency services. These training manuals were great but didn’t fit the criteria of academic credit. One of the many great things that the FESHE committees championed was inviting publishers to be part of the solution. As a result, publishers that produced great training manuals now could write their manuals in accordance with the FESHE curriculum. This means that the objectives, learning outcomes, rigor and contact hours are established no matter what the setting. The rigor, the testing component and, in many cases, the job performance requirements are incorporated in the manual, no matter the publisher. This takes the guesswork out of the validity.
For example, a firefighter takes a 40-hour fire officer class at the local fire academy using a FESHE-approved fire officer manual. Later, that individual applies to a college that teaches a fire officer course of study that uses a FESHE-approved fire officer textbook. The testing component, model curriculum objectives and learning outcomes are the same.
Fire academies’, private training institutions’ and other training facilities’ use of the textbooks as training manuals is a great benefit for the institutions, the student and even the instructor. The training basically is vetted.
Throughout the past 20 years, we have learned and have preached that being in the fire service isn’t just a manual job. It is a profession. Just as a doctor must be educated with academic theory and skills, a firefighter must know theory (the fire tetrahedron) as well as practical skills (applying the water stream).
So, is preparation to be a firefighter a matter of academy training? Yes. You learn some basic theory, but mostly classes are skills-based. Is preparation to be a firefighter a matter of college academia? Yes. Once you learn the basic theory and the skills that are needed, you can continue your professional development.
In the past decade, the great prominence of professional development finally has been identified—the need for continual education and training—to speak to the needs of the ever-changing field of fire and emergency services, whether that be in conjunction with the increase in incidents that involve hazardous materials, the ever-changing technological advances on and off of the fireground, or the need for better leadership skills. The last time that you took a class at a fire academy shouldn’t be during recruit school. The last time that you set foot in a college shouldn’t be when you received your associate degree.
The members of today’s fire service are becoming a highly educated group of professionals. Fire departments across the United States are implementing education and professional development into their promotional requirements—for example, a lieutenant must have an associate degree, a captain must have a bachelor’s degree, a chief officer must have a master’s degree. This trend isn’t based only on academic degrees but also weighs heavily on training and certifications, such as Fire Instructor I, company officer and even incident safety officer. Whether it comes from an academic institution or a training academy, it is all professional development. Ultimately, this will keep you, your co-workers and the members of the community that you serve safe.
A great bridge between training and academia is being constructed, because the fire service is a profession. It isn’t simply putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.
