Department Struggles to Retain Firefighters
A department in Maryland is making some interesting choices (from The Capital via Firehouse.com).
The county Fire Department is losing firefighters almost as fast as it can hire them, leading officials to lower standards for new recruits.
The county Personnel Office has started giving passing grades to new hires who correctly answer 60 percent of questions on a written test - the equivalent of a low D in a county grade school. The previous standard was 70 percent.
Over objections from the union that represents the county's firefighters, the department also has cut an intensive physical conditioning course from 12 weeks to a couple of hours.
While I'm not sure of the wisdom of these choices, it seems that the real problem for this department is firefighter retention. They need to address the reasons why they are losing so many firefighters so that they don't have to bring on so many new recruits.
Read the whole thing to get all of the details.
Comments
If they can not pass the written exam to start with, how are they going to pass the classes in the academy? It seems to me that it is a waste of money. And the fact that "too many minority candidates" can not pass the exam shows that there is a problem in their schooling. The test is not the problem. As a minority, I find it highly offensive that some one would say that I can not pass a test because of my ethinc background. (I am Hispanic btw.)
Posted by: Mia at April 13, 2006 12:40 PM
