With thousands of students graduating each year from pre-fire programs in Ontario, the competition is fierce for the available firefighter positions available. It’s important to do what you can to set yourself apart from the rest. There are a number of ways to increase your value to a hiring fire department, including volunteering, keeping your record clean and connecting with the right people.
One important step is to complete training to become a certified Emergency Medical Responder. Not only does this training look good on your resume, it is additional hands-on training that will help give you the confidence to respond quickly in an emergency situation, and it builds upon your pre-fire training. According to the Ontario Fire Administration, completion of higher-level EMS first aid or medical training serves as an asset in an application to work in fire services.
When working for a fire department and being a first responder, the majority of the calls you respond to aren’t fire calls, they are medical calls. Will you get training when you are hired by a fire department? Yes, of course, but it is tough training, and not everyone passes. It’s better to be walking in already having experience and training as an EMR, and the next training you receive will be building and reinforcing the skills you already have. When you train in these skills again and again you build your confidence and you are quicker to respond and have more experience to be able to make the right decisions.
The Emergency Medical Responder course is a tough course. We put you in scenarios that are stressful, because being able to perform under stress is an important part of your training. It’s part of our “Train hard, fight easy" mentality that prepares you for the real world.
Check out Swift Response's Red Cross Certified EMR and First Responder training