At the 2011 International Association of Emergency Managers conference it was mentioned over and over to the students whether in group settings or in one on one sessions that a large percentage of the existing Emergency Management leaders would be retiring beginning in the next 5 years. The question, we the students, no matter the level of education responded with is “How are we to gain experience in the field in the next five years while we wait our turn at the few existing emergency management positions?”
Our (Shai Cooper & Marya Dominik) idea was that Federal Emergency Management Agency create a Federal Disaster Management Externship program, where for three, six or nine months a student rotates through Planning, Logistics, and other Offices as well as to any disaster events that occur during these months. The Externship candidates could also serve as On-Call Response and Recovery Employees, Disaster Assistance Employees and assist with Individuals with disabilities.
The Externship candidate gets vital ‘deployment’ experience, the field teams get support, and in the end FEMA, State and local Emergency Management agency get trained members of the EM community who have both experience and education that so many agencies are looking for these days. The assumption is that the Externship candidate will have preliminary training before going so that they will be an asset not a hindrance.
Comments (12)
I agree that Externships are an important tool for students. One other suggestion is that students should look into joining a local Incident Management Team (IMT) if available. They have a system in place that you Shadow someone with experience in your area of interest (planning, operations, IC, etc.) during an event before your "turned loose" to take on that role on your own.
Your experience/training is tracked in a log book. It's a great way to gain experience managing an event.
Do you have more information on how to go about this?
I made a suggestion to the same effect on another post. Glad to see others are on the same page. And the IMT Suggestion would be good for anyone wanting to learn more. If permitted by the local OEM. Good Posts!!!
Until the an Emergency Manager is better defined and accepted the title EMD will most often be in conjunction with a traditional position within the Public Safety and Works.
Fantastic Idea!
Sounds like a great idea. Let's start by sending all FEMA GS-9 and up through the program.
This is a fantastic idea ! I wonder how we could FEMA involved, then they could start profiling people to start working as interns in their departments.
Looks like FEMA/EMI is already started this program with the National Emergency Management Academy.Go to link,
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/NationalAcademy/
Having just graduated with a degree in Public Safety / Emergency Management, I find myself in the position of countless students (even though I'm somewhat older than most students) of needing experience, even though I have the degree (with honors, in fact, but that doesn't seem to carry much weight...). I'd be very interested in such a program.
"“How are we to gain experience in the field in the next five years while we wait our turn at the few existing emergency management positions?”"
Really? Do you want someone to just give you a job? Why not volunteer with a PNP, NGO, local jurisdiction. I understand the frustrations of finding a job w/ limited to no experience, but you have to help yourself and not expect to be given something for nothing. (which oddly enough should have been taught in any EM course) I'd rather hire someone that found their own experience versus a gov't run program that I'm pretty sure would be a waste of time and money.
We have developed a pilot program in our Region (x) that utilizes military persons who have been injured and must transition out of the service due to their injuries. We take those individuals, train them up to a beginning level of Emergency Management, find intern positions in our state, county and community governments, place them into intern positions (keep in mind that they are still being paid through DOD or VA due to their injuries) for 3-6 months to give them job experience in the civilan world. The pilot was successful. Some would like to stay in this field while others choose to take civilan positions closer to their home of record. Since so many of the skills required in Logistics, Communications, Planning and Safety are easily transferrable to a civilian marketplace, they have valued skills and experience to take with them where ever they go.
We are currently looking to be able to expand this concept and working through our legislative teams to bring this to a broader audience.
However, I did just place three interns from our local colleges into slots in Social Media, school preparedness and business continuity workgroups. So there are ways to get that experience and "face time" that you need to get in this field along with education. Networking with as many as you can in the business is a key component to working in the career along with skills, education and time spent in the trenches as a volunteer. Your time will come so stick in there.
Terry Clark
I think it's great to train some of our military and train them in the different skills !! Local colleges can do this also by splitting into different groups to learn different things. All time is credit towards a grade, but students all need to volunteer .