Becoming a firefighter

[sean87]

How long does it take to become a  trainee firefighter -on average?
Thanks for reply

[Andy Cole]

What are you trying to do Wholetime? Retained?, what have you already done? One of the hardest part's is getting through the Application form stage in the first place I think!

[sierra2]

I am currently on the long road to retained in gloucestershire It can take up to a year! to give you an idea of time scales: I attended a recruitment event in August 07, returned 'stage one' application by september, an information evening about the 'stage two' application form in oct, returned that in nov. had me intelligence/psychometric tests in early december, passed and have my physical and medical on 21 jan. after that its an interview. with commenment of employment in march, however, i won't be 'on the run' until i have done 4 weeks residential training over 2 months, ending in august 08, so from attending a recruitment event to being a trained and active firefighter takes about a year! still i'm halfway there eh!

[pugh]

Blinkin' eck!  How long?

I joined in '77 and it took until the ink was dry.  Interview, exam's and physical (humping one of the duty crew around the appliance room in a firemans lift) December '76, medical in January '77 and started my course in February.  Yes, of course, they were desperate back then but even so, I still think that maybe the service is missing out on a lot of good people due to the time it takes and all the hoops to jump through.  Different times, same job basically.

[Andy Cole]

Took me over two years from expressing an interest to being on the run for Retained!