Loughborough College students became fledgling fire fighters for a day in a ground-breaking partnership.
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service joined forces with the College and arrived on campus to give 16-18 year olds on the Uniformed Public Services course a taste of the test faced by real life potential recruits.
Challenges against the clock for the 20-strong group included an enclosed space simulation, a ladder climb and casualty evacuation, all while wearing full firefighter kit.
“Our pioneering collaboration with Leicestershire Fire and Rescue offered our students a fantastic opportunity to gain a first hand insight into life as a fire fighter,” said Loughborough College public services lecturer Shaun Hession – who himself spent 25 years in the service, including in New Parks which was at the time the country’s busiest fire station. Sean also created and introduced the Fire Fit initiative which educated 10,000 school pupils in fire safety and resulted in lives being saved as a result.
“Our Loughborough College students were under the watchful eye of experienced fire fighters and it was a safe and encouraging environment - but that doesn’t mean that every one of the six tasks which made up the Point of Entry Selection Test didn’t take them way out of their comfort zone.
“There is no doubt they faced a massive challenge but they learnt so many skills, were able to assess areas they may need to enhance and gained an incredible amount of confidence. It was brilliant to see how proud the students all were of what they had achieved.
”We’re very much looking forward to seeing how our new partnership with the Service will develop and continue to benefit our students.”
“It was a lot of fun but much harder than I thought it would be,” said 17 year old public services student Ben Rhodes. “The equipment carry really pushed me physically and the manual dexterity test looked easy – until it was my turn! I was so happy to complete everything and to get good times. I one hundred per cent want to look at joining the fire service now – and being given the chance to do the test means I know what I need to focus on to have a good chance of success.”
Fellow Loughborough College public services student Sophie Fletcher, also 17, added: “I was a bit nervous before the test because I really didn’t know what to expect but the fire fighters were so supportive. I wasn’t keen on the confined spaces task - they put a special mask on you that blocks you being able to see - but I was told to breathe and keep calm and I was so proud when I completed it. It certainly gave me an insight into the fire service as a potential career and it was such a great experience and I enjoyed it so much, I’m definitely considering it now.”
Loughborough College care and public services manager Bernadette Barker, public services lecturers Jesse Jackson and Jonny Verhey and Economics lecturer Jasmin Davy also took time out to line up for testing alongside the students.
Vince Howard, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Services’ On-Call Liaison Officer, said: “By working in collaboration with Loughborough College, we are providing the overarching support to give students a pathway between their mainstream education and their full-time employment with Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, or any other unformed service they may choose to go on to in the future.”
Dean Thornton, Learning and Development Manager from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “We were thrilled with each and every one of the students. Their efforts were outstanding, and who knows we could have witnessed some up-and-coming firefighters of the future!”