The Experienced Firefighter Pathway is an alternative delivery method designed to allow full-time firefighters to complete their Fire Protection Technician associate degree while continuing to work and serve their communities. Firefighters with certain experience and certification can take advantage of Western's Credit for Prior Learning opportunities to provide a shorter and fully online avenue to complete their degree.
An individual who might be a good candidate for the Experienced Firefighter Pathway meets MOST of the following criteria:
- 5 years of full-time firefighting experience or volunteer/paid, on-call/part-time equivalent.
- IFSAC or ProBoard Firefighter 1, Hazmat Ops, Firefighter 2, Fire Inspector, Pumper Driver/Operator certification.
- EMT-Basic certification/license.
- Discipline to complete multiple assignments with multiple deadlines.
- Consistent access to computer and ability to get online.
- Successful completion of a college course or the skills to produce a multiple page, properly formatted student research paper (with assistance available, if needed).
- Basic computer skills to produce documents and presentations, participate in online meetings, post and reply on online discussion boards, and access the online library and search engines to conduct research.
Additionally, students should possess professional maturity to participate in each course and engage with the content and course. Fully online education requires a large amount of time spent engaging with course content, with other students, and doing individual research on various topics. Students should be prepared to commit a large amount of time to their coursework.
Find out more about how this pathway helps address the firefighter shortage and hear from graduates of the program on our News Center blog.