Case studies / Burlington Fire Department

Burlington Fire Department

Burlington Fire Department attains 100% training compliance

The Burlington Fire Department is a municipal fire department that provides vital emergency response, prevention, and education services in order to increase community safety and quality of life in the region of Burlington, Ontario Canada, which was named the best mid-sized city in Canada. The force strives to be a leader in service excellence, employee development, strategic alliances, advanced training, and the use of technology.

Situation

The Burlington Fire Department runs eight fire stations and employs roughly 300 people, including career and volunteer firefighters, dispatchers, mechanics, trainers, inspectors, investigators, and a public educator. The department responds to a variety of emergencies within the municipality, from fires and car accidents to water rescue and chemical spills. All of the staff must complete mandatory training regularly. Additionally, Training Supervisor Bill Hammond creates special interest training for outside agencies such as the regional police force (for example, how to utilize extrication tools for forcible entry).

Training is especially important due to the dangerous nature of the work–the more skilled the workforce, the fewer people get hurt. As such, Hammond’s main goal with training is 100 percent compliance, meaning he can prove to an outside agency that 100 percent of the staff have taken a specific training program. The challenge is ensuring that every person is trained at the same level, with the same content, and within the same time period. It’s critical that everyone receives an identical message, and that Hammond has accurate documentation of training. The in-house program that was created for the department did not allow him to deliver a consistent message, and it didn’t track completion or scoring on training courses.

Solution

The Burlington Fire Department searched for an eLearning solution and chose Trakstar Learn due to its ease of use and breadth of features. Hammond uses interactive PowerPoint presentations, PDF documents, and videos to create courses, each of which is concluded with a test. For mandatory training, he sets a time frame (usually 21 days) within which employees must complete the course. Additionally, trainees must achieve a certain percentage on the test to pass training. Special interest courses are generally presented on a big screen by the captains, with trainees taking the tests at their leisure, independently.

Hammond likes Learn because:

It’s easy to use, both for the trainer and the trainees.
It’s cost-effective and didn’t require any upgrades to their system.
Ensures that every employee receives the same message at the same time.
Automatically converts any video format during uploading.
It provides instant results and excellent overall reporting.
Lets him add a completion certificate at the end of each program.
It can be accessed anywhere at any time.

Results

In a single year, they created almost 40 courses. The most recent course had 160 trainees enrolled.

Although the minimum pass rate is 70% on the quizzes, almost all trainees get 100%.

For the first time in Burlington Fire history, they’ve had 100% compliance – and they can provide documentation of this with Learn's reporting.

Mindflash is now Learn, part of the new Trakstar Trifecta alongside Hire and Perform

Burlington Fire Department