FRV Training

How FRV professional career firefighters are trained

There are over 3,500 professional career firefighters in Victoria.  Each professional career firefighter has been selected following rigorous entry tests. Every professional career firefighter has completed the professional career firefighter recruit course.

Professional career firefighters undergo extensive training via the above recruit course followed by a 12-month probationary period. The Victorian Recruit Firefighter Course is a 20 week full time course.  Recruits training is extensive, rigorous and also follows the pattern of the professional career firefighter roster, with recruits completing 18 tours of four days “on” and three days “off”.

If a Recruit successfully graduates from the Victorian Recruit Firefighter Course, their training does not stop – it continues.  A newly-graduated professional career firefighter must undertake continuous training in accordance with the national, accredited training curriculum. This requires a further three years of study and training to successfully obtain the professional classification of Qualified Firefighter.  In all, it takes 4 years to reach the professional classification of Qualified Firefighter, which is a similar timeframe for other registered professions.  During this period, the Firefighter is deployed on shift to a fire station for operational experience and to respond with their crew under supervision to all emergency incidents.

Professional career firefighters also undertake additional specialist training and qualifications to deploy for specialist functions such as heavy rescue/road crash rescue, high angle rescue, trench rescue, marine response and more.