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Fire Service Professional : NS Labour and Advanced Education, Fire Safety

Fire Service Professional

Certification and Accreditation: What Is It All About?

Many people ask, "What is certification?" A certification exam measures an individual's knowledge level in any area. The testing process will not guarantee, but documents, that every person involved in the certification process has the same knowledge level. Many organizations throughout the world have certification programs in place, but this begs the question, "Will this certification be acceptable only in our area or will our certification be acceptable in other areas as well?" So you can see, before a certification program can have value, it must be accredited. Accreditation is a formal recognition of the certification process.

Download the Certification Process Flowchart (PDF: 126k)

In 1996, a group representing the Nova Scotia Firefighters School, Halifax Regional Municipality, Cape Breton Regional Municipality, the Office of the Fire Marshal and the Fire Officers Association of Nova Scotia met to begin the process of accreditation. As a result of that meeting and many more, the Nova Scotia Fire Service Professional Qualifications Board was formed and registered with the Joint Registry of Joint Stock Companies in 1997. The process then commenced for this board to be accredited.

There are two Fire Service accrediting agencies in North America. Both of these agencies are located in the U.S. They are the National Professional Qualifications Board, commonly referred to as the "Pro Board", and the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress, commonly referred to as "IFSAC". It was the decision of this Board to become accredited by IFSAC.

Accreditation requires a formal application and a site visit of the Accrediting Agency. The site visit is used to determine that the Local Board is, in fact, qualified in areas such as test security, test questions validity, reference materials, testing policies and procedures, and the appeal process.

Download the Certification Examination Application (PDF: 29k)

Test security is very important in the accreditation process. The Board has purchased written tests from professional testing agencies and is set up to generate at least three different tests at each sitting. Many questions will be the same, but each test will be unique. After the test has been generated, it is placed into individual envelopes and not opened until given to the examinee. After the test is completed, it is placed back into an envelope, sealed and sent back to the Board for grading.

Test question validity is also reviewed by the accreditation agency. Test questions must be clearly worded and should also be referenced back to textbooks and set of standards. A site visit team from IFSAC visited the Nova Scotia Fire Service Professional Qualifications Board in June. They are recommending to the IFSAC Board when it meets in September that we be accredited in nine areas: Firefighter I & II, Fire Officer I & II, Instructor I & II, and HazMat Awareness, Operations and Technician.

The information on the certification exam, the process and the reference material required, is provided so the examinee is better prepared for the exam. Listed below are the skill sheets required for the skills portion of the exam. During the skills portion of the exam, the examinee will be tested on a random selection of the complete list.

Good luck! When you get your accreditation certification, you will be entered in an international registry.