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AN AWARDS ceremony was held recently at the University of Salford to recognise academic achievement within Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service through examinations run by the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) at Intermediate and Graduate levels.
The commitment and energy of the IFE’s North Western Branch, which assisted in supporting learners, continues to ensure that the Institution develops an ever-growing membership base, both in the UK and across the world through its international branches. It also demonstrates how vibrant and influential the North Western Branch is and will be in future years.
The vital role of those who have been instrumental in developing and implementing the examination process, in particular training centre staff and mentors, must also be recognised. Without their experience, knowledge and sheer hard work, this initiative would not have taken place. These staff give their time freely and do not seek recognition, but are driven by the desire to see their colleagues develop and progress in their chosen profession.
Importance of exams
It is worthwhile reflecting on why the examination process is so important to our profession and why Greater Manchester, along with a number of other fire and rescue services, has decided to reintroduce examinations.
The last few years have been a difficult time for the fire and rescue service, not only here in England but also across
the UK. We have gone through a significant amount of change in virtually every area of our service at local, regional and national level. Very few organisations can cope with that scale of change, while at the same time responding to new threats and risks and still maintaining the very high levels of service delivery that our communities expect and rightly deserve.
The fire and rescue service nationally has risen to the challenge and not only absorbed that change but also exceeded the expectations placed upon us. The numbers of deaths, injuries and fire incidents across the board have been reduced. At the same time, our service continues to play a more influential role in local community safety partnerships, driving down the risk in local areas.
All good news but it comes at a price. Less incidents means less opportunity to learn on the job, and less opportunity to demonstrate our individual skills. Add this to a national framework for the way we select and develop our people, to prepare them for resolving complex and demanding operational incidents – one that pays little regard to operational experience, competence and underpinning knowledge – and you can see that problems will soon start to appear.
It is generally agreed that most chief fire officers in the UK see three areas which need attention to improve how we as a service deliver our operational response:
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maintenance of operational competence and underpinning knowledge
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identification of risk on the incident ground
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maintenance of command skills at operational incidents
Thirst for knowledge
Day in and day out, personnel in the service work in a risk-critical environment and, as such, we have an obligation to ensure that we are as prepared as possible to deal with the risks we face. There can be no better way to achiev this than by being able to demonstrate, through a credible process of study and examination, that each of us has secured that knowledge, and that we build on it and add to it as we progress through our careers.
In 1970, I was a young firefighter in the then City of Manchester Fire Brigade. Along with a number of colleagues of the same age, we spent much time seeking out information and developing ourselves in order to become more professional in our work. It was not long, therefore, before I was guided towards the Institution, where that thirst for knowledge could be put to good effect.
The thirst for knowledge has thankfully never left me, nor has it left many of our colleagues across the service. So it is no surprise that, given the impetus we have created for the need to secure examination qualifications, 142 students in Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service registered to sit them and 62 passed the full process, with many other candidates passing individual papers.
And why is it important on an individual basis? Well, I believe that, in a profession such as ours, people want to develop. They want their professionalism to be recognised and they want to make more of a contribution and, in doing so, broaden their horizons by interaction and by communicating with other professionals who have common aspirations in this field.
It is important that all those within the fire and rescue service recognise that IFE examinations are a vital stepping stone to maximise opportunities for learning and development for the good of the service of which we are all so proud.
Barry Dixon CBE, QFSM, MIFireE is chief fire officer of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
This article is based on the speech delivered by Barry Dixon at the recent awards ceremony
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