BSc (Hons)Fire and Rescue

[longjohn]

I know of a firefighter overseas who sent me this link, its for a 3 year full time or 5/6 years part time or distance learning. just wondering if anyone on firenet is aware of it? It seems to be a brand new course, just interested in the background, level of moderators/teaching etc. 



http://courses.wlv.ac.uk/course.asp?code=LW030H31UVD

[Mike Buckley]

There appear to be a number of these courses about the place. There is an issue in that these courses claim to prepare a person for a post in the fire service the problem being that there is very little recruitment going on at the moment. Also you have to predict whether or not the recruitment will have changed in 3 years time when you graduate.

I know someone who did one of these courses and graduated last year, not only could he not get a job but a number of his colleagues who had been promised jobs in the fire service when they started were told very sorry there are no jobs available.

[William 29]

What is the experience and quality of the persons teaching the subjects, that would be interesting to know? Particularly of fire ground leadership skills?
Is this a route to the two tier entry as talked about so much I wonder?

[colin todd]

Wullie, dont be ridiculous!  Everyone knows (or I have always been told) that you can shake a degree all day at a fire but it wont go out.  No one knows anything about fire unless they have eaten smoke for donkeys years and studies the manuals of firemanship on the night shift.

[kurnal]

Colin William was talking about Leadership skills not fire science. It's the most important part of any such qualification that aims to prepare people for operational service in the fire brigade. It's what ensures that you get your people home safely at the end of the shift.

 And as an operational manager getting the right balance between risks and benefit. Decisions that when it's a matter of putting your people at high risk to save persons trapped - not only in fires but in special services too- leave you absolutely physically and emotionally shattered. I wore a white helmet for 25 years but these situations never became less stressful. Fortunately I never sent anyone home with worse than a twisted ankle thank God.

[longjohn]

Hi all, sorry to revisit this after such a while, what's the course options for Lancashire, sorry to be vague was it based in Warrington?

[JT]

Have you looked at doing a fire engineering degree?

[Dinnertime Dave]

My understanding of these degrees is that they prepare you for any job within the fire service not just firefighting. The Preston course involved a non compulsory retained firefighter course.

Is it worth ?9000 a year? I doubt it, but it would be interesting to hear from somebody who has completed the degree not some old fossil like me.