Kate Andrews High School, in partnership with NAIT, will offer Fire Academy course beginning in 2019

It’s as innovative a program as there is in the province, as Kupery says that he knows of another program that exists east of Edmonton, but this will be the only one that has the medical first responder as part of it.

“We’re really excited about that because we’re looking at those tangible skills. In terms of innovation, it’s a way to allow students to explore and follow their passions. What we hear from students is that the traditional learning method isn’t always the best. It’s great for them to get the basics, and we’re not suggesting it isn’t, but when it comes to real life applicable use of the knowledge their gaining in school, they want to be outside to do that.”

The first year of the Kate Andrews Fire Academy program will be a dual credit offering with firefighters from Coaldale and District Emergency Services instructing Medical First Responder curriculum supplied by NAIT.

Dual credit programs allow students to earn high school and post-secondary credits at the same time – and for little or no cost – during their high school years. A student taking the college course on their own at NAIT would have to pay $1,800.

“Here it basically costs them zero, so it really makes sense for them to do it,” Kupery continued. “The Fire Academy program offers students the opportunity to consider a possible career choice without a lot of risk on their part.”

The program also has the approval from the provincial government in the form of some monetary support.

“Dual credit has become an emphasis for the Government of Alberta when it comes to education. As such, they’ve given us some start-up fund money. Each year, for the first four years, we’re allowed to apply for a $50,000 grant, and this year thankfully we were successful. We’re going to put that money to good use because there’s quite a bit of personal protective equipment that needs to be purchased so we can give the kids a quality and safe education.”

The Kate Andrews Fire Academy program will be offered in training rooms in the soon-to-be-expanded Coaldale fire hall. It will run the entire school year with three hours of instruction a week and some longer training days.

Coaldale Fire Chief Kevin McKeown says the program is unique in the way it’s being offered.

“There has been some work bringing emergency services folks in from high schools, but I think it’s been more of a co-op versus the full-fledged dual credit program with post-secondary education.”

As because of that, there’s a lot of different avenues students can take upon completion.

“With some of those certifications, it sets them up really well to go to post-secondary and further their education. They’ll have what they need to go take a primary care paramedic program, or if they want to go into an advanced care paramedic program, they have the starting blocks to be able to do that. If they want to go take further fire courses, they have that good base knowledge and skills built in too,” McKeown explained.

The initial class size will likely be limited to between 12 and 18 students to keep the instructor/student ratio favourable, and a limited number of seats will be set aside for Horizon students.

If KAHS students don’t fill all the remaining seats, enrolment could be expanded to include students from other Palliser schools able to drive to Coaldale.

“Some of our members will be instructors,” McKeown said. “I’ll be the lead instructors for the MFR and the fire courses. Ideally, we’ll use some in-house personnel to help teach the course, but we’ll be looking for instructors outside of Coaldale too.”

McKeown believes it’s going to be a lot of fun for both the firefighters and the students.

“Anytime you can promote emergency services and what we do, to show the students what it’s like to be a firefighter or a paramedic, it’s awesome, and you need to take advantage of it. I think the interest should be pretty good as well because we did talk to the whole school in the gymnasium a couple of days ago and a lot of people seemed interested, so it’s looking good.”

The second-year of the program will feature material provided by the National Fire Protection Association. Those completing the course will be eligible for entry-level firefighting positions. It will be offered as high school Career and Technology credits along with the fire certification.

Just where and what position a student could jump right into after completion depends, according to McKeown.

“They could start with us here, but some fire departments look for higher qualifications. However, the City of Edmonton take people that have the NAIT MFR program, so the people who come out of our program would have what they need to apply at places like that. For us here, it’ll be great if students decide to stay home in Coaldale because they can join our fire department. It’s a huge benefit for us to have that.”

The idea of a firefighter-related program came up during informal conversations between the Palliser Board of Trustees and Coaldale Town Council on potential partnerships.

The idea was to take advantage of local expertise to offer unique courses which might provide students with another reason to stay in Coaldale.

“Without the amount of work done by, and the generosity offered by the Town of Coaldale and the fire chief, this doesn’t go anywhere,” Kupery added.

Along with keeping students enrolled in Coaldale schools, the Fire Academy could also serve as a recruiting tool for Coaldale and District Emergency Services and nearby volunteer fire departments.

Palliser offered its first dual credit course just a year ago.

With the addition of the Fire Academy program, it will expand those offerings to nine – with the majority of those in Calgary – and is working on other potential partnerships as well.

by Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Kate Andrews High School, in partnership with NAIT, will offer Fire Academy course beginning in 2019

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