Fire Rescue Victoria & Firefighter Recruitment Impact

FRV Impact on Victorian Recruitment

Hey guys!

It’s Brent C here from Fire Recruitment Australia.

Today, I’m going to give you an update on the Firefighter Recruitment in Victoria and how it’s going to be conducted in the future. Regardless of if recruitment is going to be in the first part of 2018 or a little bit further down the track, let me tell you what looks like happening.

Currently we’ve got the CFA and the MFB in Victoria recruiting independently. However, it looks like they are going to go into an amalgamated approach of sorts where it will be one Victorian Firefighter Recruitment for Victorian Recruit Firefighters or something similar to that. In the future, one can apply for one zone or another. It will be like the first zone being the Metropolitan Fire District– as it is now, and the second zone being the country area Victoria or where CFA currently operates. When these two zones operate together as a Victorian Firefighter Recruitment effort, one will apply through that umbrella arrangement and go through the process with your application either going to both zone 1 and zone 2 or just zone 1 and zone 2.
I know for example, that the PAT test is currently being looked at across the board and things are being changed to be a bit more reflective of the actual role of a firefighter in its day-to-day form. I feel that this will actually make it a bit easier as far as physical component goes and I think that’s part of an effort for them to diversify the workforce of firefighters in Victoria and ultimately, all over Australia.

Hopefully, that gives you a bit of insight into how I see it going in the future and how it will be much easier as a potential recruit to approach it after the first few rounds go through and everyone gets a bit more of an understanding of which organization is going to lead that recruitment process and how it’s going to change.

There you have it,  a bit of my insight into how I see firefighter recruitment moving or where it’s moving towards in the early part of 2018 and into the future. Hopefully you’ve gained some insight and I have helped answer some questions for you.

Fire Rescue Victoria & Firefighter Recruitment Impact

• Is the change in the structure of the Victorian Fire Services going to change my chances of becoming a professional firefighter?

This is the question of hundreds of potential firefighter applicants both looking to join the CFA or MFB in Victoria.

To get an understanding of the answer you need some background to the proposed changes in Victorias fire services from CFA and MFB to Fire Rescue Victoria.

So the proposal is that the CFA’s approximate 1000 professional firefighters along with the MFB’s 2000+ professional firefighter will be amalgamated into 1 service named Fire Rescue Victoria.

Some things to consider:

• In the media release from Daniel Andrews it states that the extra 450 firefighters currently being recruited by CFA is part of the deal so this should see recruitment continue as it is to fill these positions.
• The need for professional firefighters and quick response is growing as smaller outlying suburbs become more populated and the demand for fire & rescue services grows with this.
• Diversity in the fire service is being pushed heavily with quota recruitment happening in other states around Australia and the media release from the premiers office stating they will quadruple the number of career female firefighters in 4 years
• Manning of fire and rescue appliances may increase with a more modern approach to emergency management
• Areas that currently do not meet service delivery standards may become part of the new Fire Rescue Victoria area which would increase the need for new employees
• Amalgamating the states fire services will be a very lengthy exercise and not something that will happen overnight, when Ambulance Victoria was created it took years to get to where they are today
• Diversifying & increasing the role of professional firefighters. In Victoria the MFB has been engaged in EMR ( emergency medical response ) for 15+ years and the CFA has just recently taken on the same role, this will increase demand on resources and increase the need for more firefighters and perhaps higher staff turnover in the future
• Age of the workforce, there are many professional firefighters approaching retirement age which will increase the need for recruitment
• With amalgamation there is still the need for the same amount of firefighters on the ground if not more, it is the management and administrative roles that generally need harmonising.

In summary I suggest the following.

The changes still need to go through parliament, this will take time.

Things will continue as they are in the short term as far as recruitment goes.

There will be a large opportunity for females looking to join the fire service in Victoria and around Australia.

Overall recruitment should increase whether thats under the banner of CFA, MFB or Fire Rescue Victoria.

So if you are looking to become a firefighter in Victoria I hope this has helped you understand some of the points I have thought about when asked the question about Fire Rescue Victoria and the proposed amalgamation and its affect on recruitment.

Best Wishes

Brent

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