![]() ![]() A Chief officer from the department considering employment will forward the candidates application for reciprocity to the Certification Unit.This is a laborious but futile process, as staff efforts often do not result in a firefighter becoming a productive member of Alabama’s fire service. The rationale for the processing fee is that the reciprocity evaluation process takes an exorbitant amount of time for Certification staff even though approximately 25% of those who request reciprocity never seek employment in Alabama. For those candidates who are seeking employment in Alabama and need additional hours to fulfill the requirements as prescribed by the PSEC to become certified, normal tuition rates should be paid for whichever course is applied. There will be no charge for volunteer firefighters seeking reciprocity. This fee should be paid by the candidate seeking reciprocity. Going forward, a $200 processing fee for career firefighters seeking reciprocity will be assessed. The AFC currently does not charge for processing reciprocity requests. ![]() Fire Fighter Reciprocity is intended to evaluate a candidate’s training hours and subject matter content to ensure they have achieved the competency necessary to perform as a firefighter in Alabama as prescribed by the Personnel Standards and Education Commission (PSEC). This mechanism was designed to provide a pathway to become a firefighter in Alabama for those who received their initial training elsewhere and who have not been separated from service for greater than five years. We will make every attempt to facilitate and coordinate this training with local departments and RTC’s so as not to protract delivery or delay this training, particularly if there are multiple self-sponsored students who need this course.This course will be scheduled on a quarterly basis.For self-sponsored students who are not affiliated with a department, AFC will conduct and facilitate the training at AFC.If the training and testing occurs at the local department, there will be no fee for training or testing.The eight hours of academic and practical skills testing will complete the eighty-hour course. Once the Task Book has been completed by the host department, the student will be eligible for Recertification testing.These skills, along with the fifty-six hours of online training, will be presented in a Task Book which will be verified by the department’s Fire Chief, training officer, or designated official. Sixteen hours to retrain on the fourteen mandatory JPR skills required for Firefighter I.Fifty-six hours of online, department-facilitated study to reacquaint the student with the NFPA 1001 essential functions of a firefighter.Additionally, because the student course count per class is low it does not take 100 hours to “retrain” one firefighter. Reduce the number of hours from 100 to 80. Experience shows that because these firefighters were previously certified, they understand the job requirements in Alabama.Even though we waive the tuition charge, AFC still incurs expenses because our Certification Unit must prepare and process the test instruments, and our proctors must conduct final academic and JPR testing, which typically takes a full day.To accommodate their request, we often allow that department to conduct the recertification training for their employee as they have a vested interest in ensuring their employee is competent and capable. Because their department has invested the time and effort to conduct the training, we typically waive the tuition charge ($540). We receive requests for recertification on a periodic basis. Most of the time these requests emanate from an Alabama fire department for one individual. Of course, the departments are seeking the most expeditious path to get their recently hired employee to the field.There have been eighty-one students who have successfully completed the Recertification course during the past seven years.Most of these courses were delivered by the employing department. Twenty-one courses only had one student.Fifty-one recertification courses were scheduled twenty were cancelled, thirty-one made.Following are issues that we need to resolve to make this course both economically feasible for the Fire College (AFC) and our partner Regional Training Center (RTC)’s and tactically feasible (safe) for both staff and students. The 100-hour Fire Fighter Recertification allows a pathway for those who have been separated from the fire service for greater than one year to renter the fire service. The problem is these courses have very low student counts. ![]()
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