Measuring Readiness: Building a Foundation with Efficient Certification Testing

Managing certification testing in the fire service to ensure personnel have the skills and knowledge they need to be safe and effective in the field can be arduous and cumbersome.

Whether certification testing in your state is managed by a single state entity, a network of regional exam sites, or a higher education or technical college system, leveraging the right tools to optimize certifying workflows is critical for improving testing operations.

In Part 1 of a 4-part webinar series: In A Time When Disasters Never Sleep, How Do You Measure First Responder Readiness?, we explored the certification testing process with three state fire certifying entities. Register to watch on-demand.

The webinar guest panelists included:

• California State Fire Training (SFT)
  • Brandon Erickson, National Accreditation & Certification Exam Manager

• Georgia Firefighter Standards & Training Council (GFSTC)
  • Christina Tipton, IT Business Analyst II

• Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS):
  • Ward Lyon, Director, Fire Service Education and Training
  • Denise Perkins, Fire Service Education Specialist
  • Shari Jacobson, Fire Service Education Specialist

During this enlightening discussion, a prevailing theme shared by our guest panelists, reflective of the industry across the country, was that every state manages fire certification a little differently with the same goal in mind: ensuring the preparedness of fire personnel.

Acadis is a highly configurable and comprehensive solution that helps fire certifying bodies streamline workflows without taking away from their preferred process.

Managing Diverse Certification Operations

One Small Team Makes a Big Impact

Although California is the third largest state by geographical comparison, California State Fire Training (SFT) operates a relatively small program, with about 15 personnel. For all firefighters in the state, SFT provides course plans, standards, and runs the certification system.

SFT relies on registering instructors and accredited institutions to deliver SFT courses and conduct the testing components on its behalf. “We have real challenges in terms of getting to all of the regions within our state with such a small staff,” explained Brandon Erickson, National Accreditation & Certification Exam Manager.

Their old system was slow and relied a lot on paper, creating significant challenges and delays in getting students their results in a timely manner. It could take up to 24 weeks for a student to get the results after taking a certification test. “Our processing times for certificates used to be upwards of 12 weeks; processing test results had the same time frame,” Brandon described.

With Acadis, the process is more digital and more accessible for the stakeholders across the state.

Managing Annual Training Requirements and Certifications

The Georgia Firefighter Standards & Training Council (GFSTC) covers 159 counties. There are 423 departments, with a total of 3,500 stations, and 31,000 firefighters in Georgia.

In the last year, GFSTC has increased from a staff of 10 to 12 to meet the demands of a growing population. There are six area reps who service all departments across the state.

GFSTC maintains all training records and requires every firefighter in the state to complete 24 hours of training annually, which is submitted to GFSTC every year.

Total Oversight from Curriculum to Accredited IFSAC Certifications

The Wisconsin Technical College System ​(WTCS) operates with 16 technical colleges that cover 72 counties with over 800 fire departments. The technical colleges provide training and administer written and practical testing for students. There are nearly 50,000 active user records in WTCS’ Acadis system.

WTCS develops curriculum, validates exam banks, prepares written exams and schedules all practical exam testing for the entire state of Wisconsin. WTSC then issues all certifications for the 15 accredited IFSAC certifications offered in the state and issues upwards of 5,000 certifications each year.

Registration Process: From Manual Workflows to Expedited Enrollment

Automated Prerequisites Save Time and Ensure Compliance

“Our registration is for the testing side of things. The registration process for the class is handled inside the department itself, and then they register for the testing,” explained Christina Tipton, IT Business Analyst II.

Since moving to Acadis for testing management, GFSTC has been able to streamline testing, giving opportunities to more people—expediting promotions and getting more people in fire trucks faster.

“It’s sped up that process tremendously. It’s become more automated, instead of someone physically having to manually look at prerequisites, we’ve been able to use Acadis to validate that a person has met the criteria, and then automatically enroll them,” said Christina.

Streamlined Processes Fast-Tracked Buy-In

In Wisconsin, WTSC streamlines class request submissions from the technical colleges with Acadis via a web form. The web form includes program details and is automatically routed to staff to review and make the class active, college staff enrolls existing students, and new students are imported into Acadis.

Initial buy-in from the technical colleges came around the testing process. Their previous process was paper based and time consuming.

“It had been manual for so many years. Now with Acadis, students have instance access to relevant information. They know immediately if they pass an exam and they can access their certificate in Acadis. Students can also review information like key learning objectives for each exam,” explained Shari Jacobson, Fire Service Education Specialist.

Going digital not only saves significant time in delivering and processing exams, but it also saves the expense of mailing materials back and forth.

Acadis has saved WTSC a lot of manual work and quickened the process so students are not waiting to find out the results or receive their certification.

Updated Processes Improve Student Services

Typically, in California, when an instructor or a training academy decides to offer one of SFT’s courses they will submit a request through a web form in Acadis, similar to Wisconsin.

Staff reviews the request and will approve it based on the criteria set in the course plan. Then a registered instructor or an accredited institution will deliver it.

“We’ve turned around a lot of our processing times, taking one to three months for most services down to 24 to 48 hours. In the case of test results, it’s instant,” Brandon described.

With less administrative time required to manage the testing operations, SFT is able to free up staff to help remediate issues, provide career counseling, and other support to the California fire community.

Brandon continued, “By adopting Acadis and updating some of our business processes, we’re able to keep the same number of staff and increase our services and customer service.”

Test Set Up: Boost Engagement and Motivate Learners

Consolidated Systems Accelerate Results

We touched on Wisconsin’s manual, paper-based testing processes that required tests to be physically delivered to the technical colleges, administered, and sent back to WTSC for processing.

Along with having all tests on paper, WTSC was using outdated and unsupported software, which broke during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the office scrambling to find a solution. This was the catalyst that prompted the office to look for testing software.

Acadis was chosen, not only for its robust, secure testing capabilities, but to use as the state’s training database. “We had two different systems before, and now everything is all in one place,” explained Denise Perkins, Fire Service Education Specialist. She continued, “Students can go right into their portal account and view and print their certs after an exam. Before, we were getting the exams back, scoring them, and sending the scores. Now students are getting that information immediately. They are also able to look at their missed learning objectives to know where to focus their studies. It has really changed our lives as far as our process evolving.”

Secure Online Testing Reduces Staff and Student Stress

When paper exam booklets were handled by mail in California, it was a logistical challenge to ensure the security and integrity of the exams. Staff would have to manually inspect each exam to ensure there were no notes. “It was a lot of manual labor and prone to human error,” said Brandon.

Now, SFT uses Acadis Testing and leverages course templates for the cognitive and skills tests. The automated online testing option requires a username and password, which is given to the proctors, which they hand out on test day. “It’s highly secure. It’s rock solid. We have not had a single issue with our online testing, which is super important for us.”

Like WTSC, SFT is now able to provide students with their results immediately, see missed learning objectives, and schedule to retake the test in the system, if needed.

Time and Resource Savings Powered by Technology

Georgia moved to online testing on Acadis in 2023. Previously, they were using bubble sheets and Scantron technology.

Area reps travelled throughout the state with test booklets stored in vaults in their state cars, hand delivered them, and proctors would sign them out. It was a huge undertaking logistically and a big security risk.

“We were cleaning cubicles out and discovered stacks of tests that never even got scored. How many people are missing certifications that they are not even aware they’re missing? That’s unacceptable. We are very, very fortunate to have Acadis and are so excited as we continue to advance our use of the system,” exclaimed Christina.

Now, like California, GFSTC is using a class template in Acadis. The proctor is responsible for bringing the task books and the command worksheets. GFSTC processes them, provides missed learning objectives, and graduates students—and everything gets documented in their Acadis person records.

“That was one of the major frustrating things for our firefighters in the state of Georgia was the up to three-month bottleneck from when you’re trying to get promoted or advance in your career, and you’re just sitting there waiting three months for a test grade. It’s just unacceptable. Very frustrating,” said Christina.

GFSTC is also an early adopter of AgencyConnect, the only technology solution that connects state-level certifying bodies and academies with local agencies, automating and streamlining training reporting from local agencies on TargetSolutions directly into the state’s Acadis system.

A Look into the Future: Continued Expansion of Streamlined Processes

Running a successful state level training and certifying operation requires a strategic coordinated effort.

Our guest speakers concluded with deeper insights into additional ways they are refining their overall process holistically.

Digitizing Task Books and Securing Knowledge Transfer

In California, SFT is continuously looking for ways to expand their use of Acadis to further streamline processes.

“Task books are not unique to California. We use them for all levels of certification. That’s one piece that we have not incorporated into the system, but it’s really just sitting down and figuring out how to update our business process and digitize our task books in the Acadis ecosystem,” reported Brandon.

Succession planning is another area SFT is hoping to utilize Acadis to reduce ramp up time for new employees to combat loss of knowledge when turnover happens.

Brandon continued, “For us, it can take about six months to understand the way we do things in California when we onboard a new employee, and then it’s a few more months to understand our processes.”

Deepening Expansion with Expert Guidance

Like California, Georgia agreed that digitizing task books would make it easier for departments to be able to fill them out wherever they are, then upload them into Acadis, and after the staff reviews them, they become part of the hire-to-retire training and certification record. Everything in one digital and secure system.

“We have over 200 volunteer departments. It would be huge for them to be able to do that from home after they get in after a training night and they’re sitting on their couch,” Christina explained.

Succession planning, like SFT, is also a big challenge in Georgia that they’re hoping to leverage Acadis to help with. Christina has total confidence in Vector Solutions’ ability to deeply understand the unique needs of different states and tailor Acadis to meet their distinct needs. “That’s big in my book. That just puts Vector on another level.”

Pilot Program to Statewide One-Stop-Shop

Wisconsin initially ran a test pilot for Acadis with certain colleges. WTCS staff recommended interested organizations speak to an Acadis rep as well as different states using Acadis to understand where you want your process to evolve and then pilot it.

“In our case, with a certain number of colleges, we got the kinks out to where, on March 1st of last year, we released every course to all of our colleges. I think piloting the program really helped us in our process,” said Ward Lyon, Director, Fire Service Education and Training.

For WTCS, Acadis is now their one-stop shop for the whole state. Everyone in Wisconsin is taking their cert testing through Acadis at the tech colleges.

Ward emphasized the number one factor to improving processes with Acadis is their dedicated and knowledgeable Acadis rep, saying “She is amazing and fantastic. She has been instrumental in streamlining us and helping talk through our process.”

From Time-Consuming Paper-Based Processes to Scalable Software Solution

Moving from paper-based processes or less sophisticated systems to Acadis’ robust, highly configurable capabilities can significantly improve your organization’s workflows and processes.