Women in the Fire Service (WFS) has announced that it is in partnership with Fire Knowledge in an alliance focused on developing diverse, talented and motivated workforces.

WFS said it has committed to supporting the Practice to Progress Fire Partnership (P2P Fire) through the provision of highly skilled and passionate coaches from its network, who will take on the role of P2P Assessors, supporting selection and career progression coaching.  

Formally launched at the Emergency Services Show in Birmingham in September 2022, the a partnership is with Fire Knowledge UK, Practice to Progress, and the Asian Fire Service Association (AFSA) and aims to support the UK Fire and Rescue Service.

WFS associated professionals, in their new roles as P2P Fire Assessors, will help develop and prepare people at all levels to achieve their goals and to confidently take the next steps in their careers.

This includes preparation for reapplying to enter the service or internal promotion, point-of-entry selection tests, initial wholetime and on-call firefighter recruitment, support for under-represented groups, and promotion into wholetime managerial roles.

WFS Chair, Jules King said: “The alliance will work together to design and deliver training to prepare candidates for initial selection or promotion assessment. Our initial commitment is to provide six assessors who will be trained to ensure consistency, along with six assessors from AFSA. Our highly experienced assessors have been selected to enrich the experience and meet the diverse needs of organisations and individual candidates.”

“We believe that Women in the Fire Service and the Asian Fire Service Association have the power to make a significant difference in driving positive change through this partnership. Something we are all passionate about is providing safe spaces to practice, learn and develop. This is a unique opportunity to allign with other organisations and Services, to share our extensive experience and to work with future firefighters and supervisory managers.”