Firefighter Recruitment Amidst The Bushfires

Hello friends! What a year 2019 has been and what an even bigger year 2020 will be! As you all know, Australia has been inundated with bushfires in the last few weeks ranging from small to roaring and tragic ongoing fires.

How these will shape and affect fire service recruitment, we’re yet to find out. However, two possibilities come to mind:

1. Recruitment will proceed as scheduled but with an even more aggressive drive to hire more firefighters who can help in events similar to what we’re currently experiencing; or
2. Recruitment will be delayed as the focus will be on managing the bushfires first.

I believe that option 1 will be the case. Either way, rest assured that recruitment will move forward with lessons borne from the bushfire events.

Fire And Emergency New Zealand

On another note, the first quarter of 2020 opens with four fire services, namely – FENZ, ACTFR, DFES, ARFF. The first to recruit among the four is Fire and Emergency NZ or FENZ. They’re set to open the 3rd of February and the submission of applications will run for a month. FENZ uses SHL as their test provider. What’s unique with FENZ is that it incorporates a directional/instruction-oriented exam aside from your regular aptitude and talent screener test. See a sneak peek below.

Department Of Fire And Emergency Service Western Australia

The next fire service rumored to open in February but with no definite date yet is Department of Fire and Emergency Services in Western Australia. However, let’s remember that with this intake they’ll implement their new system which is the “rolling recruitment”. That in itself may be a cause for delay, so don’t be surprised if ‘curve balls’ as we like to call it, are thrown our way.

DFES still uses Saville as per our last update. It would be premature to say what stage they would start with first, especially with the changes they’re implementing. Therefore, DFES is definitely a must-watch in the fire industry. Below are snippets of what Saville exams looked like in previous intakes.

Air Services

Then we have the Air Services or ARFF who will most likely proceed as scheduled as compared to other fire services. No announcements yet as to how many posts and what locations they’re trying to fill, so that would be something to look forward to in the coming weeks.

ARFF also works with Saville for Aptitude Exams and there has been little to no changes in the exam style in the previous years which includes Aptitude, Talent Screener and Work Reliability. Here’s a look at ARFF’s exams.

Last but not least for the first quarter, we have the Australian Capital Territory Fire and Rescue or ACTFR. No specific date yet on when they’ll open this quarter. However, they have been getting some publicity due to recent bushfires so that at least should be a sign that they definitely will proceed with recruitment. ACTFR still uses ACER. Check out the slide below for a quick look.

P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways we can help you Get The Edge over the competition

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