PRESS RELEASE
10/17/2005
Georgetown City (S.C.) Fire Department Launches ILUMINAR
POULSBO, Wash. -- Georgetown City (S.C.) Fire
Department announced the launch of ILUMINAR LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (ILMS) this
week as its new platform for delivering ACTION TRAINING SYSTEM, Inc.’s multimedia computer-based training
content. A five-year client of ATS’ interactive media-rich suite of training
products based on NFPA standards, the department provides training over a
secure Local Area Network (LAN) directly at firefighter work stations.
Developed by ILUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES INC., the ILMS is a new easy-to-use
training management system designed to enhance delivery of multimedia interactive
computer-based training.
According to Georgetown City Fire’s Assistant Chief Bill
Johnson, the ILMS has several advantages over Courseworks, the previous
platform: “It’s easier to enroll students and to capture information and data
about their training once they’ve done that, but also technically,
the program is sounder; it’s a smoother operating system,” Johnson said. “The video
looks better.”
Georgetown City Fire is a combination fire department with
36 paid members and 12 volunteers near the coast of South
Carolina, about midway between Myrtle Beach
and Charleston.
With two fire stations, the department protects a small city of 9,000 and a
total population of about 12,000.
Johnson said the department’s computer-based training
network has become vital to keeping pace with the increasing demands for
firefighter training. Relying strictly on instructor-led training was becoming
increasingly impractical, Johnson said, because of the challenge of bringing
together instructors, class space and scheduling for both career and volunteer
members.
ATS interactive training is delivered 24/7 at the
department’s fire stations – at firefighter convenience and at their own pace.
Because the system is maintained on the department’s server, Johnson is able to
deliver better video quality and to monitor detailed records on firefighter tests
and progress through training courses. As he throws the switch on the ILMS, Johnson
said his database on firefighter training is maintained, enabling firefighters
to seamlessly pick up where they left off.
Georgetown City Fire’s system includes Firefighter I and
Firefighter II, HAZMAT Response, Rapid Intervention Teams Assessments, and the Pumper/Operator and Aerial Apparatus series. The system
helps firefighters prepare for certification and all members are required to go
through the curriculum once a year as a refresher. For refresher purposes, firefighters
able to score 90% on a pretest get credit for taking the course without going
through it, thus saving unnecessary training time.
One of his biggest challenges is keeping volunteer members
trained after certification, said Johnson. “Another great advantage of
computer-based interactive training is that our volunteers – who aren’t here
for 24-hours as our paid members are – can come in and work an evening separate
from any regular drills and work on this program. They get an awful lot of
training by doing that.”
Career members also say they feel better trained because “they’ve
got this right in front of them,” said Johnson. Career members are required to
take 250 training hours per year and volunteer training requirements are soon
to get close to that. “I think they appreciate the independence they have with
it,” Johnson said, “they can take their time and do it at their leisure and on
their schedule, without having to interrupt other things going on.”
Certainly, CBT won’t replace all the various components of
the Georgetown City Fire’s training program, Johnson noted, but it’s been a
very efficient and economical way to keep firefighter training where it needs
to be. Computer-based training provides a foundation of knowledge so that
firefighter and instructor time in on-site training is maximized. “You can
watch the technique of putting up a ladder on a computer screen, but you still
have to follow through with the physical skill of doing that so you feel the weight and you feel the movement of the ladder, so we
are still doing practical skills training, but this has augmented our training
so much. It’s vastly improved our training program.”
Johnson says he welcomes visits from other fire departments
interested in seeing a demonstration. “We believe in not reinventing the wheel,
and so we like to pass along as much of this as we can,” he said.
For more information about Georgetown City Fire Department’s
training, contact Johnson via e-mail at billjohnson@georgetowncityfire.org.
ACTION TRAINING SYSTEMS, Inc., based in Pouslbo, Wash.,
is the leading producer of multimedia interactive training programs for
firefighters and first responders. Established in 1988 and led by
President and CEO George A. Avila Jr., ATS has produced more than 80 courses
and 200 fire service and terrorism response training products,
including training on CD-ROM, DVD and video, as well as lesson plans,
PowerPoint presentations and simulators for instructors.
All ATS training is instructionally designed to teach
to current NFPA standards and provides excellent certification and
re-certification test preparation. Popular titles include Firefighter
I and Firefighter II, Pumping Apparatus, Aerial Apparatus, Rescue, Fireground Support Operations, Emergency Medical Services
and HAZMAT Response. For more information about ATS, call 1 (800) 775-1440, fax
1 (800) 943-6288, e-mail info@action-trainingsystems.com
or visit www.action-training.com.
ILUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, Inc., was
founded in 2004 as an independent company by ATS President and CEO George
Avila, Jr., to develop a superior proprietary learning management platform for delivering
multimedia interactive training content over a secure network. For more
information, call 1-800-755-1440
Ext. 5 or 1-360-779-1179 or
visit www.iluminartechnologies.com on
the Web.
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