FIA launch new fire detection and alarm qualifications

The Fire Industry Association (FIA) officially launched their new qualifications in fire detection and alarms at the recent FIREX event in London.

Martin Duggan, general manager of the FIA, outlined the new qualifications as part of his seminar sessions, which will contain a wide range of new topics and key information not seen in previous FIA training. As a result, the courses will be longer due to the amount of new content and the rigorous exams at the end of each unit.

The qualifications will become the standard in time for the whole of the industry, raising the bar on professionalism across the fire sector.

Duggan said: “There are four new qualifications. Designer, Installer, Maintainer, and Commissioner. They are equivalent to a Level 3 in the UK, so that is the same as an A-Level, but in Europe it is the same as a Level 4 qualification on the European Qualifications Framework. We did a gap analysis of our current training and the new qualifications to discover how much more the new qualifications would offer. The results show us that the courses will at least double in size.

“We’ve developed some units that are completely new, plus we added extra sections that industry stakeholders and employers have asked for. Our members have very much guided us in this direction towards including more content and making the courses longer and more extensive, in order to stretch the learners’ knowledge further than before.”