EMTs and paramedics wishing to advance their career should consider FEMA training. The courses provide first responders, EMS personnel, homeland security administrators, emergency management officials, and many other affiliates with the education, skills, and aptitudes needed to perform key national preparedness tasks.
The FEMA National Training Program (NTP) provides a high level of training for emergency managers and providers across the nation. This program supports the National Preparedness Guidelines.
Several FEMA Training Organizations are involved and offer national disaster preparedness training.
• The Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) has developed advanced training for emergency response providers and managers, and government officials from state, local, and tribal administrations. Offering more than 50 training courses at its campus in Anniston, Alabama, the CDP focuses on incident management, mass casualty response, and emergency response to a catastrophic or natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and tragic events. Training at the CDP campus is federally funded and therefore there is no cost to state, local, and tribal EMS personnel or their agencies.
• The Emergency Management Institute (EMI) functions as the main national focal point for developing and delivering emergency management training. The goal of the EMI is to augment the capabilities of volunteer organizations, public and private groups, and federal, state, local, and tribal officials, to minimize the impact of disasters.
• The National Training and Education Division: Training and Exercise Integration/ Training Operations (TEI/TO) works with the nation’s first responders by helping to build critical skills that responders need to function effectively in catastrophic events. With more than 125 training courses, the NTED serves state, local, and tribal entities in 10 specialized disciplines, including serving in the private sector for citizens in recognition of their significant role in domestic preparedness. NTED involves a partnership of several groups of training providers: the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC), the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium (RDPC), and Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), among others. NTED also partners to provide Competitive Training Grants Program (CTGP) which awards funds to applicants to develop and implement new training programs that addressed national homeland security training needs.
• The National Fire Academy (NFA) is the nation’s foremost provider of management and leadership skills. The NFA provides advanced technical training for local fire and emergency services participants in the areas of prevention, preparedness, and response. The NFA complies training in both residential and off-campus classrooms, including online EMS distance learning course options – comprising a national distribution systems of accredited state and fire training systems and colleges and universities to reach all national first responders. All participants in NFA training who successful complete the courses, receive college credit endorsement through the American Council on Education and also though the continuing education units via the International Association for Continuing Education and Training.