FIA

In the wake of Gent by Honeywell's successful apprenticeship scheme entitled 'Get Fired Up', the fire industry has launched its own scheme to bring young people into fire protection in a bid to ensure that the UK retains its reputation as one of the world's leading lights in fire safety.  Ian Gurling, the Training Manager at the Fire Industry Association (FIA) has been involved with the development of this scheme.  Ian comments - "Like many industries we are acutely aware that we need to attract new blood.  The UK is looked upon as a real fund of technical knowledge and expertise and we need to invest in training the next generation of fire safety engineers to keep the threat that fire poses both to life and to property under control."

Developed in association with Skills for Security, the programme is aimed at candidates aged 16-24 and follows two years of groundwork by the FIA to map out and start to deliver a careers development path.  The apprenticeship is a combination of practical on-the-job training and theoretical learning, with the employer providing the workplace training and the college delivering the learning outside of the workplace.  The financial commitment from the company is to pay the apprentice's wage costs, with all funding for the college tuition and the fees relating to the NVQ qualification that the apprentice ultimately receives met by Skills fo Security.

Ian Gurling continues - "it is difficult for young people to know which career path to take at the moment but the fact that there is a very definite skills shortage in fire safety engineering shows there are certainly career opportunities available.  For any company involved in fire protection, the apprenticeship offers a very cost-effective way of providing training which has a real tangible benefit in the work environment at a time when businesses are looking to achieve that all important competitive edge."