Off-Campus Courses

可能一个星期没有通过,有人不喜欢ask me why the United States Fire Administration's National Fire Academy (USFA/NFA) doesn't have courses available for local delivery. For some time, there has been a perception that the USFA/NFA Emmitsburg campus is the only place students can attend USFA/NFA training; but we've been conducting courses at local sites for years! In fact, the overwhelming majority of students take USFA/NFA training without ever leaving their home states. In the fiscal year ending September 30, 1999, 43,729 students (83 percent) attended locally delivered courses, whereas only 8,871 students attended class at Emmitsburg (17 percent). Of the approximately 680 courses scheduled each year, 480 of them are delivered locally. Many of the off-campus courses are delivered in partnership with the state fire training system and are all a part of the USFA/NFA's Distance Education Programs. There are several different delivery programs. Within each program, the majority of courses are either two or six days long.

Each federal region in the country (there are 10 regions) receives from the USFA/ NFA each year three courses ranging in length from five to 10 days. In partnership with Training Resources and Data Exchange (TRADE),1 an association of state and metro fire training fire representatives, the USFA/NFA sponsors the Regional Delivery Program. We provide NFA instructors, books, some administrative fees, and a $100 stipend to each student (to offset the cost of local travel) to attend classes. Our TRADE partners decide which courses they want, selecting three courses from a menu of nine. The courses cover a wide range of topics: Challenges for Local Training Officers, Community Education Leadership, Emergency Re-sponse to Terrorism: Incident Management, Fire Cause De-termination for Company Officers, Fire Inspection Principles, Fire Service Planning Concepts for the 21st Century, Hazardous Materials Incident Management, Initial Fire Investigation, and Presenting Effective Public Education Programs. Contact your state training director, see our catalog, or view our Web page at for further information.

In full partnership with the state fire training system, each state in the union receives nine two-day USFA/NFA courses taught by NFA instructors. These top-notch, intense courses are designed and developed to help local departments address the issues they confront while recognizing the time constraints faced by many of our students. The curriculum ranges from executive skills to company officer leadership, from arson detection to public education, and from incident command to EMS. Each state training system selects its nine courses from a menu of 23.