Four new fire detection qualifications have been labelled a success after being well received during their launch in London last week
The Fire Industry Association (FIA) has welcomed the success of its newly launched fire detection qualifications.
The four new courses were presented during the three-day industry expo event, FIREX, held at ExCel, London last week.
The four qualifications focus on the main job roles within the sector, covering both fire detection and alarm systems. This includes the role of designer, installer, maintainer, and commissioner. New awarding organisation the FIA AO will oversee the qualifications, which will work to meet the needs of the industry.
Qualifications offer new content
During the event, three seminars took place to discuss the new qualifications. General Manager of FIA Martin Duggan delivered a set of presentations about the different qualifications and what these courses offer.
“The seminars were very well attended and it was a great opportunity to answer questions directly from visitors at the show. These qualifications have taken years of development and we are really excited to share with the industry exactly what shape the qualifications will take,” said Duggan.
“We’ve taken on new staff and had a small shake-up of the FIA team in preparation for the launch of the qualifications in order to answer all those initial questions and to ensure that the booking process goes smoothly.”
The qualifications, which were developed in conjunction with employers, recruiters, member organisations and learners, are the equivalent of an A-Level. In Europe, it is a Level 4 qualification on the European Qualifications Framework.
The courses contain a range of new topics for those in the industry and span longer than previous courses due to the amount of new content. The courses also end with rigorous exams.
“We did a gap analysis of our current training and the new qualifications to discover how much more the new qualifications would offer,” said Duggan.
“The results show us that the courses will at least double in size.
“We’ve developed some units that are completely new, plus we added extra sections that industry stakeholders and employers have asked for. Our members have very much guided us in this direction towards including more content and making the courses longer and more extensive, in order to stretch the learners’ knowledge further than before.”
