Fire Risk Assessment Training

[colin todd]

Al, contact my PA if you want and put yourself down for the next course. Tell her not to worry about invoicing for the moment. We can chat about what you can afford in due course.

Hugh, which course did you have in mind.  The FRA course is delivered as part of the inspecting officer training at the SFSC.  It is sometimes possible to take extra delegates. Email the office with your interest if you want.

[Eli]

As i am being made a man of leisure on the 24th of this month (made redundant) I am looking at my options,and having read a number of FRA's from different sources that are nonsense at best I'm looking a bit of advice - is there a fast track way of becoming a fire risk assessor??

Hi Allen

My suggestion would be to look for a course with some form of National approval something that is either Ofqual approved or an NVQ I think that ABBE do a level 3 and a 4 qualification and there are plenty of NVQ level courses out there. The trouble with non approved training is that every Tom, Dick and Harry runs courses these days and they don’t have any external checks or audits. The second bit of advice would be to get a recommendation from someone re the delivery of the course, some trainers are very poor at getting information across and to learn you need to be engaged. The third point is assessment process what do you have to do to pass your final assessment. If it’s an open book exam at the end of being spoon fed for 5 days forget it, any Muppet can pass that type of assessment. Finally check on the after support, you will have paid a lot of money for training; does the help stop the minute you walk out of the room or can you seek advice and assistance from the trainer.

The reality is though you don’t need any training or qualifications so save your money and spend it on a fancy web site, it will bring you in tons of work unlike a certificate from some training course.

 Ignore the last line; although true it is actually bad advice.

[Allen Higginson]

Thanks Eli. I'm sensing a certain bitterness in your last bit. - bad experience??

[hughmccafferty]

Al, contact my PA if you want and put yourself down for the next course. Tell her not to worry about invoicing for the moment. We can chat about what you can afford in due course.

Hugh, which course did you have in mind.  The FRA course is delivered as part of the inspecting officer training at the SFSC.  It is sometimes possible to take extra delegates. Email the office with your interest if you want.

[kurnal]

I dont think anyone is offering the ABBE level 4 course qualification yet but please correct me if I am wrong.

Eli do you know of any courses available or service providers that you would feel confident in mentioning here?

The IFSM recommend the CFPA advanced diploma. Dont know how that compaes to other qualifications.

[ahmedh]

Costly though Kurnal.

CFPA Europe Diploma in Fire Prevention to be completed initially at 3,450 followed by CFPA Europe Advanced Diploma in Fire Prevention at 2,000 

The basic diploma enables you to obtain Technician grade membership of IFE. Just for reference the NEBOSH cert in fire and risk is a lvl 3 qualification which also counts towards tech grade at less than a 1/3rd of the cost.

For that money i would rather do a masters in fire engineering.

[Allen Higginson]

I think I'm going to have to speak to my careers teacher agian at this rate!!

[Midland Retty]

I think I'm going to have to speak to my careers teacher agian at this rate!!

I'd also have a word with your english teacher too ! 

[Allen Higginson]

Everyone's a critic!!

[ahmedh]

oops, reading back i am muddying the water there  

Your career teacher can map out a career plan with a 5yr plan (for example).

What do you need bare minimum to be a fire risk assessor? I assume you would be going the consultancy route, check out the IFE register (yes there are others) recommended courses. Colin's is down as one. Once complete you would have met the training requirement on the back of which you would need to obtain suitable experience completing risk assessments on simple low risk environments for example.

This would enable you to apply a risk assessor register increasing your profile.

I would suggest lots of reading of relevant British Standards and Building regs etc. Lots of companies and orgs also offer CPD courses some free some not. Often the free ones are put on for a number of people where the trainer comes to you.

I would consider CFPA courses, degrees and masters etc as icing and something to work towards whilst working (of course if you have time and the money initially, go for it).

IMO, having a good presence on the internet is essential. As a minimum a website is a must. Doesn't have to be some crazy flash website. A basic html website with say 4 pages would be sufficient (and to be honest, depending on who does it, search engine optimisation works better on html). Depending on your knowledge/ability/time you can knock one up yourself. Be very careful of free hosting and companies who buy your domain name for you. With the first you have little  control, all manner of ads will be on (which customers tend not to like) unreliable as there is no comittment to you and security and the latter can be problematic as you may find hosting companies not providing the service you would like then charge you excessively to get the name you thought you owned!

just some thoughts

[CivvyFSO]

I think I'm going to have to speak to my careers teacher agian at this rate!!

I'd also have a word with your english teacher too ! 

Maybe you should have a word with yours? Shouldn't that be "English" teacher?

[Midland Retty]

That'll teach me to be a smarty pants

[CivvyFSO]

That'll teach me to be a smarty pants

I sincerely doubt it will Retty.

[Midland Retty]

You're probably right Civvy! 

[Eli]

Allen

Just get hold of a copy of the competence standard for fire risk assessors and do a self assessment. Thats what every other risk assessor up and down the country will be doing. I bet they know it all though!

If you have some background in fire and are not a real idiot you could make friends with a 'real' fire risk assessor and do some shadowing with them. live jobs real problems is a good way to learn. A mentor is always useful no matter what courses you have been on.