The Totality of Transitioning to a Training Officer

The Totality of Transitioning to a Training Officer

One (1) of the supreme facets of being promoted to a role within the Office of Training, is that you now play an instrumental part with influencing the level of success that the Officers and Firefighters will achieve during their tenure within your respective department.

From setting the tone of pride and morale to fashioning a culture packed with the drive to strive for excellence in the craft, the Training Officer is the one (1) person manning the helm and steering the department towards triumph.

During your own individual time on the floor, you have accumulated a plethora of education and experience to better prepare you for a spot within the Training Division; however the street skills and certifications only provide you the license needed to test and pilot the boat. If your overall end goal is to navigate the department’s operational personnel to the sea of success, you must be provided a guide map on how to get there and what is expected of you in your new found role.

Congratulations on your promotion, here is a badge, a take home car and an office chair that has seen more derriere than a portable toilet staged at the Durham Fair. With many fire departments, taking this promotion is a pit stop towards the top with it commonly being the avenue of necessity to make that transition from the apparatus floor and through an administrative door.

With the position being uncharted due to its lack of long-term retention, many in the position don’t capitalize on their time occupying the role due to constantly being stifled by the various obstacles and wakes they encounter such as mandatory standards and compliance training, internal staff personality conflicts and a wealth of required documentation and record keeping.

The overall goal and intent of the following information is to prevent you from losing that passion and purpose that you set out to achieve when testing for the promotional process and in turn provide a basic outline identifying strong traits that need to be incorporated that no class or call for service made you aware of prior to being pinned.

Taking Ownership with Communication

Quality communication is critical for success as a Training Officer and finding the neutral balance between your friendship from the floor and the respect from your rank is a fine line that must be established from the forefront.

With many departments, the Training Officer does hold rank (Assistant Chief, Captain, etc.); however there needs to be an understanding from the beginning that Line Officers and Firefighters are NOT your subordinates and you MUST treat them equally with the same level of respect and attentiveness that you would expect to be reciprocated towards you and your new role within the rank and file.

Often you are the link between "the boys" and the brass, so it is imperative and equally important to be mindful that you are NOT playing the field for both teams, rather you are assuming the position of advocate with the ultimate goal of bettering the department's overall human capital knowledge and response capabilities. Quality communication provides an avenue tied in with being engaged that will assist with being that communicative collaborator between the apparatus bay and the Chiefs who have the ultimate say.

Empowerment through Constant Engagement

As a Training Officer, it is imperative that you remain engaged at all times with both the rank and file and the resources you have at your disposal that surround your department and geographical response area.

A sure fire way to lose the respect of your peers is to remain stagnant in the office and remove yourself from the field during training. While a large part of your job function is to develop lesson plans and to facilitate training, you absolutely must be part of the delivery process as well.

Remaining involved with the training helps to foster credibility and it validates your skillset with the Officers and Firefighters you are training. It will also help to increase their vested interest knowing that you too are taking part in the curriculum. Nothing is beneath you as a Training Officer; you are just now the person tasked with orchestrating the entire process.

Engagement with all of the useful (and often FREE) resources around you will also generate positive dividends for your position and the increase in human capital knowledge that you wish to bring to your department personnel.

Connecting up with local agencies such as police, code enforcement and EMS specialists will broaden the skills of your respective department exponentially. The engagement and arraignment with outside skillsets will assist with the delivery of subject matter areas that you might not be as versed in; however their awareness and knowledge with public safety facets such as crime scene preservation, basic arson investigation and mass triage can offer a level of training that sets your respective department apart from others in the area.

Another piece of the cog with being engaged as the Training Officer is that you slowly become the eyes and ears of your institution. Being exposed on the daily to each and every Platoon (Group or Shift), you stand a greater chance of seeing first hand where the deficiencies are, what the climate is like and more importantly you start to harvest relationships with the Officers and Firefighters that offers the needed insight as to who they are as people rather than as personnel.

This is where a Training Officer has the greatest opportunity to become influential with guiding and directing the troops on the track that the department brass has established through new department policies and procedures. As the middleman and liaison between the boys and the bugles, your engagement on all ends has the aptitude of increasing that neutral balance.

Capitalize on the Strengths of your Comrades

The complement of Officers and Firefighters that make up your department frequently bring specific skillsets to the table and often they have a greater level of “expertise” than the Training Officer might have with a certain operational discipline. Utilize those people to deliver training that emphasizes their unique or individual strengths and interest.

By including others with the development and delivery of lessen plans, it will not only alleviate some of the burden that lands on your lap, it will also prove to be conducive with obtaining buy-in from your peers and develop a vested interest in turn motivating others to strive and learn.

A training exercise on accessing a locked motor vehicle that is delivered by a seasoned Firefighter on shift may contain the same information and objectives that it would when presented by the Training Officer, but when coming from those performing similar tasks on the daily helps to harvest more credibility for the information portrayed. Utilizing those around you to create a diverse training curriculum as a Training Officer is the epitome of working smarter, not harder.

Without your Officers and Firefighters, there is NO fire department. Regardless of how robust your ranks are with administration and leadership, you need boots on the ground who are going to place the department policies and procedures into place out in the field and to achieve this you need a well rounded training program.

Reverting back to communication and capitalizing on the cadre that surrounds you, it is also essential that the educational requests and training feedback received from the floor are taken into consideration when creating a curriculum. Organizing and facilitating towards the needs and wants from the body will produce more compliance and cooperative efforts and less complaining and complacency. The win-win in return will allow for you as a Training Officer to enjoy and appreciate your new found role and responsibility and the Officers and Firefighters will be more willing and receptive to training while on shift.

Set the Tone, Create the Culture

From my experience and exposure on both sides of the gamut, I am a firm believer that a Training Officer is the most prominent and effective role in the fire service. Individually, you have the capacity to connect department personnel through training and education by ensuring that every firefighter whether green or seasoned becomes engaged in the process and is met with excitement while gaining the rewards from training. The engagement and enthusiasm displayed by the Training Officer is so vital that it can make or break the department’s cumulative confidence and culture.

AB Turenne is a 25-year veteran of the fire service and is currently the Captain of Training and Safety with a career department in Middlesex County Connecticut. As a Certified Level III Fire Service Instructor, AB's training curriculum has proven to be conducive with the operational needs of those he teaches and in turn has improved the human capital knowledge of many. A graduate from the Master of Public Administration program at Anna Maria College, AB has continued his efforts in training and education by contributing to the Fire Engineering Training Community