When it comes to training, it seems like there’s never enough time. Another thing there’s also never enough of: money. This is especially the case for small departments–volunteer, combination or career. Some small departments have literally no training budget. Others manage to devote small amounts to training, but that means they must watch every penny.
Fortunately, there’s a lot of knowledge and initiative within the fire service that can help small departments stretch those tight training budgets as far as possible. Recently I spoke with Philip Oakes, fire chief of Laramie County (Wyo.) Fire District #4 (an all-volunteer department with 25 active members) and trainer/national program director for the National Association of State Fire Marshals. Oakes presented “Training Operations on a Budget” at FDIC today, a session designed to help training officers network with one another and discover new ideas for cost-effective training.
Get Involved
Although several factors contribute to small training budgets–the size of the department, the commitment of its leaders, the local economy–Oakes stresses that there’s one thing training officers can control. “The training officer needs to get involved in the budget process,” he says. “Prevention and operations have to be in there as well, but as mom used to say, if you’re not at the table, you’re not going to get fed.”
In some cases, those new to the training officer role may be hesitant to insert themselves into the budgeting process. Oakes says this is a mistake. “Keep asking to be a part of the process. Keep talking about training and how to fund it, keep bringing it up,” he says. “If you don’t have enough support, be your own advocate.”
Use What Works for Others
Oakes has taught this course a few times, and he says it never fails to produce a plethora of training ideas among the attendees. A few that have stuck:
- Create a mentoring program. “Have a true and actual operating and effective mentoring program. This sounds obvious, but it’s so rare,” he says. “Train the people doing the mentoring and ensure those people have a schedule that they’re following. Typically we say, ‘stick with this person, mentor them,’ but no one knows what they’re doing.”
- Use Fire Corps. Citizen volunteers who don’t want to be responders can be enormous assets for training. “Maybe you know a housing contractor who wants to be a part of the fire department but not as a responder,” Oakes says. “Get them to teach building construction to your firefighters.”
- Train in context. When Oakes was the Wyoming State Training Director, his staff developed task books and skill sheets based on NFPA standards, but took the process a step further, breaking down each individual skill into small component parts. “So an instructor can go out to our website, grab the skill sheet, set up the scenarios, and literally follow them step by step to teach the skill,” Oakes says.
- Ask for less. Many departments turn to their local Wal-Mart or Home Depot for cash donations. If that’s not successful, Oakes suggests asking for “their broken stuff–broken sheet rock, for example. We can load that up into a forcible entry prop and train on it, and a lot of places are more than willing to give you their broken stuff.”
- Tap into vendor expertise. When salespeople come knocking, you might think you have to turn them away because you don’t have the budget to buy what they’re selling. Oakes looks at it a different way. “I tell them, I probably cannot afford to buy your product. However, I can use the training and you are an expert–come on in,” he says. “I can’t buy new air packs, but that doesn’t mean that MSA or Scott couldn’t come in, do their presentation. And my folks are going to learn how to use air packs and learn the basics of air management. The salesperson gets a contact, we get a friend and everyone learns something. And when time comes to buy, you have a contact.”
Two caveats when using training ideas from other departments: Give credit where credit is due, and share what works. “We as trainers come up with new ways of doing things, yet no one wants to tell anyone,” Oakes says, “Some people start to think of how they can use that new idea to make money–but that’s not what it’s about.”
Employ Technology
Another effective way to stretch the training dollar is through “homemade” IT solutions. “Needless to say, my fire department can’t afford a website, but we understand the value of it,” Oakes says. “So we adopted social media instead, because it’s free. If you want to see my fire department, go to Facebook.”
Similarly, if you have a cell phone, you can record a brief training video, upload it to YouTube, then email the link to the members. “Tell people to look at it before they come to training this weekend,” Oakes says. “With some simple, free programs out there, you can even edit several videos together.”
This method gets at the heart of Oakes’ approach to training: Do as much as you can before the members arrive for the drill. “If you can get your folks used to doing the bookwork and the electronic work online before they come to the station, especially with volunteers, it makes it easier because when they come to the station, you just spend a few minutes going over it, and then you get right into the hands-on stuff, the skills stuff, the stuff that’s fun to do, and you’re not wasting their time,” he says. He has even conducted the entire book portion of a Firefighter I course via e-mail.
One note of caution: When it comes to training material you find online, the trick is to screen the material before you use it, and adapt if necessary. “Some may be good, some may not. If you’re going to grab something online, screen it, edit it to fit your department and give credit to who posted it,” Oakes says.
In addition, remember that a learning method that works for one person may not work for another, especially if generational differences exist. “When you talk about using technology as a training aide, you can’t forget those folks that don’t even have a computer,” Oakes says. “You have to have a written version. I have folks that don’t carry a cellphone, don’t have Internet. We’re still dealing with smoke signals out here! So we adjust and wake sure a written version of the material is available for them well in advance.”
Advice for Training Captains
Oakes also offered more general advice for training captains with little to no money for training. Some keys:
- Play well with others. “So often in the fire service we’re ‘anti’ the other department, we believe they don’t do it as well as we do,” Oakes says. “You have to get past that, be above it.” When you’re dealing with smaller budgets, it’s easier on everyone’s budget to share resources or send members to each other’s departments for training. “Not everything we do needs to be done in house,” he says.
- Bring training to you. Sometimes, it’s more cost-effective to ask an instructor to come to your department and teach everyone at once than it is to pay for students to travel to conferences.
- Designate a civilian member to track down funding and training opportunities. Can you get someone from Fire Corps involved as a grant/donation hunter? Sometimes, Oakes points out, you can have a lot more success going after small donations from local clubs and association than chasing big-dollar federal grants. But a bunch of small donations or grants can easily add up to $20,000 or $30,000.
- Don’t get mad, don’t get frustrated. “Realize that you’re the change agent for your fire department,” Oakes says, “Keep up the positive attitude, keep pounding away at it and share your ideas with others.”
- Allow creative people to be creative. “Let anyone helping you be creative, and come up with new, inexpensive ideas that help everyone,” Oakes says. “Just because you didn’t think of it or it’s not the way you would do it doesn’t make it wrong. Let the creative juices flow and see what happens. In the long run you’ll be better for it.”
Keep It Simple
Above all, Oakes stresses the need not to complicate training. Keeping things simple keeps them cheap and effective. Ask yourself, what can you do with some basic stuff that’s all around you?
“I don’t have a budget for physical fitness equipment,” Oakes says, “but I can find some heavy tires, attach ropes to them and create a team training drill” (for more, see Heavy Tire Exercises). Need a search and rescue prop? Talk to your local elementary school to see if you can use their jungle gym. “It’s not fancy, not exotic–but it works,” he says.
Case in point: When his department is preparing for ICS training, Oakes gathers up his son’s Matchbox cars. “Need props? There you go–you’ve been buying them for years!” he says. “Training can be that simple.”
