Fire Door Inspection Scheme Launched

[kurnal]

The Fire Door Inspection Scheme has been launched.

http://www.fdis.co.uk/

Heres some guff from their website

The FDIS education programme is a series of online education modules which you can study in your own time and wherever it's most convenient for you. The FDIS Diploma examination can be taken at a local centre.

As a Diploma holder you can proudly demonstrate that your knowledge of fire doors is to a defined industry standard - you are an acknowledged professional in your field.

The education programme has been researched and authored by industry experts in their specific fields and leading members of the BWF-CERTIFIRE Scheme and GAI - the two leading authorities on fire doors and their components.

The Diploma programme covers:

•Foundation module - provides a basic understanding of fire doors and their components, including testing and certification, regulations and standards, inspection and maintenance.
•Timber fire doors and frames - provides a more detailed look at timber fire and escape doorsets, their construction, installation and functional performance.
•Metal fire doors - provides information on how steel doors differ from timber doors, how they are tested, glazed, installed and maintained.
•Glazing - provides detailed guidance on the different types of fire resistant glass, glazed apertures, glazing retention systems and beading and the importance of getting it right.
•Seals - provides detailed information on the function and technology of intumescent, acoustic and smoke seals, how they're identified and installed.
•Ironmongery and signage (Part 1) - covers why each type of ironmongery is essential, critical issues about installation, how to check it is functioning correctly and when the item should be replaced.
•Ironmongery and signage (Part 2) - covers essential and non-essential ironmongery, the requirements for panic escape mechanisms and signage on fire doors.
•Transition module - only for Diploma holders who wish to proceed to become an FDIS Certificated Inspector.
Each module looks at the relevant regulations and standards that apply to fire door components and how certification is crucial to compliance.

Once you feel you are confident with the contents of the modules, you can sit the final exam. Simple online booking makes this easy to fit in with personal schedules and the exam can be taken at a test centre near you. If you complete the exam successfully you will be told the result there and then. You will be awarded a Diploma in Fire Doors and will be entitled to use the designation DipFD after your name.

Register now to take the FDIS Diploma in Fire Doors

After taking the Diploma, upgrade to become a FDIS Certificated Inspector accredited by Exova Warrington

So for £3000 you can become a fire door jobsworth. Why so cynical? Because the syllabus does not appear to put the fire door into a context with other passive and active measures. Fire doors are an important component - but only a component - of the overall fire safety package. What about competence in passives, fire alarms, emergency lighting, fire engineering, design codes, sprinklers, gaseous systems, etc etc. Its a lot of £3000's to prove you are a rounded fire professional.

[Tom W]

I think to be fair its aimed at ironmongers rather than fire safety professionals.

If they are asked to upgrade fire doors it is a good idea that they are educated to know what a fire door should be.

They are not there to quote on the other fire precuations, just the hardware on the door and the door itself.

Is it not expected that if you are completing risk assessments you should already know what a fire door should be?

[Fishy]

'Inspection' is one aspect of maintenance & is an important & necessary activity for passive fire protection.  Seems like quite a good idea to have a scheme that introduces some criteria for 'baseline' competence, as regards fire door inspection, because there are a lot of people out there who work out whether a fire door is OK or not based on little more than old wife's tales & rapping on it with their knuckles.  BS 8214 has existed for years, but how many have read it?

Not sure why, once you'd got your qualification you'd want to pay another £2.5k to get on a register, though!

DipFD??  Might be quite nice to add to the post-nominals.  Just have to hope no-one asks me what it stood for at a dinner party though... geek alert!

[Midland Retty]

Very true Fishy. proclaiming to all and sundry at a cocktail party that you are a certified fire door inspector isn't the way to win friends and influence people. Certainly not a chat up line (i can tell you from personal experience)

It is good to have schemes out there that further knowledge, and offer industry accepted training courses with recognised qualifications, but £3k is cuckoo.

I wonder if there will be many takers?