UK Skills / Case Studies

Providing Education and Training

The Fire Service College

The Fire Service College are the largest college in their field in the UK, providing training in fire safety and fire engineering to the UK Fire & Rescue Service.

A new emphasis in urban search and rescue training arising from recent terror attacks, highlighted that the UK was not equipped for such threats. Creating learning experiences that prepared people for these extreme situations required experiential learning like nothing this country had ever witnessed before.

Equipment manufacturers were consulted, multi agency exercises were developed and the training team spent a year learning techniques from the US Fire Service in preparation.   A massive training rig was then designed and built to provide frighteningly realistic scenarios for the training, using actors, loud speakers and the rig itself to create the sights, smells and sounds of a real life rescue scenario.

In all, 4,670 learners from the UK Fire and Rescue Service attended the training which cost £12 million in total. All passed, with a stringent 100% pass mark on the practical exercises.  The country now has the skills and capability to respond to emergencies and the fire fighters have been able to use the skills learned to effectively respond to real search and rescue situations.