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AT THE end of 2008, I will conclude my term as the national president of the Institution’s Australian Branch and General Assembly representative. I am pleased to announce that Mark Reilly has been elected as president elect and will take over as president at our annual general meeting (AGM) in Sydney in November 2008. IFE Australia is now in a position of strength and I am very confident that Mark will help propel us to a new high in the country.
Mark Reilly is an inspector with the New South Wales Fire Brigades. He has been with the fire service for 24 years. Mark is also a long-serving member of IFE, having passed his Members examination in 1995. He has been an active committee member of the New South Wales Group since 1993. He has served on the National Board of Directors since 2006.
Competency standards
The Australian membership can see the evidence of a resurgence of IFE within Australia, and there is a great deal of optimism in the international direction of the Institution. We have reinvented ourselves, to some extent, by providing pathways to engineering qualifications through the Engineering Council (UK). What has further enhanced our status is the granting of equivalence to several of our national fire competencies. Similar recognition has been granted in the USA and Malaysia. These mutual recognition agreements are very important to further enhance our relevance at a national level.
For some time now, the National Board of Directors has seen the need to map the Public Safety Training Package (PSTP) qualifications – Australian nationally agreed competency standards – against the IFE grades. About two years ago, I learnt that the IFE Western Australian Group also recognised this need and had actually commenced a project by utilising the extensive training development skills of Gary Eglinton.
After an enormous amount of work from Gary, we recently submitted a comparative study of the IFE Preliminary, Intermediate and Graduate syllabi against the Australian Public Safety (Firefighting) competency standards. I am pleased to announce that the International IFE Education Committee has now awarded the following equivalencies against the following IFE examinations:
Technician grade
Academic: PSTP Cert IV in Public Safety (Firefighting Supervision) will satisfy and therefore can be considered to be a general ICP precedent.
Initial professional development: as for academic above.
Summary: an individual who holds a PSTP Cert IV in Public Safety (Firefighting Supervision) and who wishes to be considered for Technician grade (TIFireE) will only need to complete an application form and forward a certified copy of the PSTP certificate.
(Previous Techical and Further Education (TAFE) reciprocity – that is, prior to PSTP introduction – will apply as currently exists).
Graduate grade
Academic: PSTP Cert IV in Public Safety (Firefighting Supervision) will satisfy the requirement for the following Graduate papers: Operations/Management and Supervision/Fire Safety.
There will still be a requirement to satisfy the fire engineering science element, which could be met by the following examples:
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fire engineering science Graduate paper
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alternative suitable qualification
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some PSTP Cert IVs may be acceptable (but this will require an assessment of the individual institution’s PSTP course content)
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technical report
Initial professional development: PSTP Cert IV will satisfy these requirements.
Summary: an individual who holds a PSTP Cert IV and who wishes to be considered for Graduate grade (GIFireE) will need to complete an application form and forward a copy of the PSTP certification and, in addition, provide the necessary evidence to satisfy the fire engineering science requirement.
(Previous TAFE reciprocity – that is, prior to PSTP introduction – will apply as currently exists).
All this work represents a massive step forward in re-establishing the relevance of the IFE to the Australian fire service. I call on our fire service members to get active in promoting this new route to membership.
President’s Award
Each year, the national president of IFE Australia has the prerogative of awarding the President’s Award for Fire Engineering Excellence.
In recognition of many years of selfless dedication to the principles and objectives of the Institution, I decided to present the 2007 award to John McCarthy QFSM, FIFireE.
John has had a long and distinguished career. He joined the Western Australian Fire Brigades in 1952. During his career, he was heavily involved in training, and served in several leading positions at the Training College. In 1982, John was commended with the Queen’s Fire Service Medal. He rose to the rank of chief officer of the Western Australian Fire Brigades from 1983 until his retirement in 1988.
His involvement in IFE has also been long and distinguished. He has played a major role in the various aspects of the Western Australian Group for over 50 years. What has impressed me most is his drive and dedication regarding the advancement of issues of local and national significance, which continues to this day.
Engineering Council Division
Thanks to the support and encouragement of Engineering Council Division (ECD) members, the Australian Branch now has a number of applicants seeking Engineering qualifications through the IFE route. This will allow IFE Australia to get a clearer understanding of the process and we should then be able to assist other Australian applicants. In early 2007, key IFE ECD members met with senior representatives of Engineers Australia with a view to establishing similar arrangements in Australia.
The Australian Branch recognises that the strength of the IFE lies in the fact that its membership is multidisciplinary and multinational. We believe that the best way to retain and expand membership is to work on projects that have relevance to the different disciplines and to facilitate international recognition of competencies.
There are a lot of worthwhile projects under way and I believe that the benefits of these will assist the broad fire fraternity in making our society safer from fire and other emergencies.
Shan Raffel EngTech, MIFireE is national president of IFE Australia
More information on the Branch is available at: www.ifeaustralia.org.au
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