Training for bushfires: Qualification-based training for volunteer firefighters

Authors: Erica Smith and Arlene Walker
Federation University and Deakin University, Australia

Edition: Volume 66, Number 1, April 2026

Introduction: This paper examines the use of nationally recognised qualifications in the training of volunteers, focusing specifically on the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) in Australia. The NSW RFS is an Enterprise Registered Training Organisation, delivering qualifications to its own staff and volunteers. The paper is based on research carried out at three times over the period 2013 to 2025, and is informed by the events of the catastrophic bushfire season of the summer of 2019- 2020. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of bushfires (Owens & O’Kane, 2020), it is important both to maintain high numbers of volunteer firefighters and to train them well. The paper shows how this fire service attempts to meet these purposes through qualification-based training and discusses implications for other, similar organisations which rely on self-delivered qualifications to train volunteers for public safety operations. It ends with some recommendations for policy, practice and research.

Keywords: firefighter training, volunteer training, enterprise registered training organisations

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 66:1 The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.