Firefighter Review

My role as a firefighter consists of attending jobs and incidents when called upon. These could be fires, RTC's, rescues, water jobs or working at height jobs. When we aren't attending jobs we do community safety work which includes school visits, home fire safety visits and Business fire safety visits. We also do training to keep ourselves operationally ready, including gym time and operational training and theory training.

I have learned many new skills such as trauma care, working at height, HAZMAT, water rescue, RTC and BA training. I have also learned to engage and communicate with people more as we have to give talks to schools/ people quite regularly. I have gained confidence talking in front of people through this.

I enjoy this apprenticeship a lot as it gives you different challenges every day which you need to adapt to. I have learned lots of different skills and met a lot of new people. It has given me a new confidence to try ner things.

The structure for this apprenticeship is very well done. It has specific set dates for when things need doing by and we are well aware of these long in advance. I always know what i need to be doing from good, clear instructions and if unsure on anything I have contacts for different people for different things.

In this job I receive a lot of support from everyone at the service. These include my line manager, my crew and watch managers and also all the members on my watch. If I were to want any more supports i know i can request it from PAM assist which specifies in trauma support in case I was to be disturbed by something at an incident.

When working to wards my qualifications I receive all the support I could want. I have all the dates set for me for when things need to be completed by and whenever I am unsure on something I am comfortable asking them the questions as I know they will send me a good response.

The qualification will help me perform better as it is tailored to do that. Its designed so the points I need to cover and the work I need to do to gain my qualification will give me extra experience operationally and in the theory side of it. For example I need evidence of going to specific types of jobs, however if I font get the jobs I will partake in a drill which will cover that.

Yes there are many activities you can do with the service. I take part in the golf society and the football team but i know there are even more than just that.

Yes

Country Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service give you the opportunity to gain different kinds of experience in this job. Learning different skills than what you would at a normal job. I would highly recommend this service. It also has great training facilities to maintain operational readiness.

I would say keeping fit is a big one. Learn about the service and learn what the service does outside of attending incidents as that is a big part of the job. Its good to know what you are signing up for and there is a lot that goes on apart from attending jobs. I would also recommend going down to a station and speaking to some of the crews about day to day.