Training And Certification Program
The Training Division provides public education, professional development training, and technical training to public safety volunteers from state government and local communities across the Commonwealth. It also administers a statewide Emergency Exercise Program and oversees the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Coordinator certification program.
Public Education includes public safety advisories, press releases, and seminars aimed at specific audiences like elected officials' conferences.
Technical training provided by PEMA deals primarily with radiological defense or Nuclear-Biological-Chemical subjects. Professional Development training is provided for all members of the public safety community and includes one-day and multi-day classes on topics that help the emergency volunteer or professional to better do his or her job.
Pennsylvania law requires that the emergency management coordinator at each level of government earn two levels of certification. A large part of the certification involves completing training offered by PEMA or the Federal Emergency Management Institute .
To maintain the proficiency of its staff and to keep its procedures current, every emergency management agency should conduct regular exercises.
Certification Program
The purpose of the certification and training program is to prescribe the training required to develop competency in individuals serving as county and local emergency management coordinators and staff. The content of the certification program has been reviewed by a panel of local, county, regional and state-level emergency management personnel. Authority for this program can be found in Title 35, subsection 7502. The Agency has consolidated this information plus detailed information on the various levels of certification including corresponding time-in-service requirements into a Directive. The most current version of the Directive may be viewed here:
Certification Directive.
In addition to the Directive, checklists for the various levels of government and levels of certification have been created to help the applicant document the required training and experience. Specific instructions on completing the checklists, time-in-service requirements, and appointment letters are contained in the Directive. The various checklists may be viewed and downloaded here:
Local Municipal Basic Certification Checklist
Local Municipal Advanced Certification Checklist
Local Municipal Professional Certification Checklist
County Certification Basic Checklist
County Certification Advanced Checklist
County Certification Professional Checklist
County personnel should apply to their respective PEMA Area Office and local level emergency managers should apply to their county Emergency Management Coordinator.
PEMA Courses
PEMA offers a wide variety of courses tailored to fit the ever-expanding role of public safety. Course offerings range from the professional development series to radiological to terrorism. There are a number of new courses including the following: Basic Public Information, Debris Management, Scene Preservation, as well as new levels of incident command courses. A course announcement for each course will be sent to every county emergency management office and state agency prior to the course. It will provide greater detail on the course content and the amenities provided.
Prerequisites
If a course requires a prerequisite, a copy of the certificates of the prerequisite courses must be attached to the student's course application. If registration is done on-line, please send a copy of the prerequisite certificate to the State Training Officer in advance of the class start date. Applications for courses requiring prerequisites will NOT be accepted without prerequisite proof.
No-Shows
Space in most of our classes is limited which requires waiting lists of applicants to be formed. For this reason, we have a strict "no-show" policy. Students who have been accepted for a class and then fail to attend without notification to the State Training Officer or Program Manager will be considered last for acceptance into future classes for a period of six months. A second infraction will bar the person from all classes for six months. Please try to notify this office within 48 hours of the class for cancellation.
Student Equipment
All students should bring note-taking materials notebook and pen/pencil with them to class. Additional requirements for the classes will be so stated in the course announcements.
Enrollment and Tuition Charges
Enrollment in PEMA courses is open to anyone with an interest in public safety who is over the age of 18 years. There is no tuition charge for any of the courses. The majority of our courses have on-line registration. If a class does not allow on-line registration, attendees should pre-register for each course by printing out the
PEMA Course Application . Please be sure to fill out the application completely. Please submit your completed registration form to the appropriate county emergency management office. Your confirmation will be delivered by e-mail for most courses.
Our Training Partners
G-series courses
Throughout the year a great many FEMA G-Series are available here in the Commonwealth.
Click here to review the currently available Minimum Standards for Accreditation (MSA) for G-series courses in Pennsylvania.
Click on the FEMA G-Series currently available to view the Minimum Standard for Accreditation (MSA) for the course:
L 146 Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program - 2 day course
G 191 ICS EOC Interface Workshop - 1 day course
G 202 Debris Management - 3 day course
G 235 Emergency Planning - 2 day course
G 270.4 Recovery from Disaster - 2 day course
G 288 Local Volunteer and Donations Management - 1 1/2 day course
G 289 Public Information Officer Awareness - 1 day course
G 290 Basic Public Information Officer - 2 day course
G 291 Joint Information System/Joint Information Center Planning for PIOs - 1 day course
G 317 Community Emergency Response Team Basic Training (CERT) - 2 1/2 day course
G 361 Flood Fight Ops - 2 day course
G 364 Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools
G 366 Preparing for the Needs of Children in Disaster - 1 day course
G 386 Mass Fatalities Incident Response - 2 day course
G 393 Mitigation for Emergency Managers - 3 day course
G 402 ICS Overview for Executives and Senior Officials 2 hour course
G 489 Management of Spontaneous Volunteers in Disasters
G 775 EOC Management and Operations 2 day course
G 557 Rapid Needs Assessment 1 day course
PEMA INSTRUCTORSHIP
If you are interested in becoming an instructor to present Federal Emergency Management Agency G-Series courses within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania you must be accredited by the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy (PSFA). Those who are currently recognized as PSFA instructors need not reapply to present G-Series courses. Please submit an
upgrade request form for each course that you are requesting to add to your list of approved courses. Each request should be accompanied by the certificate from the Train the Trainer course that has been attended.
Upgrade forms should be submitted to your PSFA Area Supervisor or the State Training Officer. You may contact the Western Area Supervisor,Mark Wineland at
mwineland@pa.gov, the Eastern Area Supervisor, Doug Snyder at
douglassny@pa.gov or for those who are unfamiliar with their supervisor assignment, the PEMA State Training Officer, William T. Dunlap at
widunlap@pa.gov.
For more information contact:
Name: PEMA Training
Email: ra-pematrainingofficer@pa.gov
Voice: 717-651-2256
Training and Exercise Division Overview
TRAIN PA Learning Management System