by Stephen Grainer

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) established a training standard stipulating that emergency responder personnel must be trained to certain levels in the U.S. government’s incident command system (ICS). The required levels are generally related to the responders’ degree of responsibility during emergency incidents – i.e., the greater the responsibility, the greater depth of ICS training required. Most emergency response organizations have adopted and adapted to the general standards since those criteria were published. In fact, many states, cities, and agencies have implemented ongoing annual schedules or calendars: (a) to provide training for personnel whose responsibilities change; and (b) to provide adequate training to new employees who are replacing those who resign, retire, transfer, or for various other reasons are no longer on the job. (more…)