Storm damage course

[chook]

Hi guys, thought you might be interested in this.
NSW Storm Damage course (National competency), goes for two full days with a day long assessment a month later. Little bit different to SA, isn't it?
What do you think?
I remember when we were discussing the Navigation course have a seperate assessment day, most people (including me) thought that people wouldn't go for it.
Yet this course has 14 people on it, none from the local unit. So anyway as I said I thought you SES types may be interested.
cheers

[bajdas]

When a discussion was held during the development of the 'old' SES basic Communications course a few years ago, I pushed for a delayed assessment.

My basis was that adults retain only 30% of a course knowledge after a short period of time. The review & practice process help retain the knowledge for when you actually need the skill (maybe tomorrow, maybe six months time).

Thus a delayed assessment would force the participants to at least review the course materials later, rather than stuffing them into a bookshelf & forgetting about them (that includes me).

But I lost the debate due to difficulty getting assessors at a later time or the participants back. It was also thought that skill maintenance is the responsibility of the individual volunteer or Unit.

Might work for a SES Level 0 course where all members of the Unit need the skill. But when only a few volunteers from a Unit do the course, it is an extra effort required.

Majority of the Information Technology (IT), TAFE & University courses are a delayed assessment model. IT assessments are done using remote electronic means.

The use of electronic assessment was discussed at the current SES GRN Comms course. The assessor could be listening on a GRN radio anywhere in the state with a local person (officer) verifying it is the participant doing the radio work. Not sure if this was accepted though.

For me a delayed assessment is required to assist in knowledge retention.

[chook]

Yep skills maintanance is, but to assess competency (the true meaning of the word) the navigation course has to be a seperate assessment day.
Other high skill courses should be the same, however I think communications for most operators would be different. Having said that our(NSW) comms course had an assessment on a different night to the training nights (we trained over several nights not a weekend). And it was assessment only, so if you didn't study, didn't have your scheiße together - then bad luck! Mind you it was a simple course, and assessment.
It will be interesting to see how the storm course manages to fill two full days, considering some of the Storm courses I've seen in SA knock it over in one & a half!
cheers

[chook]

Just thought you may be interested in the following from the storm & water damage operations course:-perform a self-rescue by ascending to a roof or descending from a roof to the ground. Thats right you are taught to prussic up & down a vertical rope! And everyone must attempt it, using prussic loops or mechanical ascenders also we use Gold tails (with whale tails being phased out).
The assessment is similar to SA, however being able to setup and safely use a roof safety system is a must!
The course is full on, going for two days from 08:30 to 5:30 each day, the assessment (which is held on a different day) goes for a minimum of 2.5 hrs.
Also the use of tarps is considered a last resort & once used they are not normally recovered!
Anyway I thought it was great, learnt heaps (which is good considering I am already qualified and have participated in & led a number of Storm damage operations), just proves you are never too old or smart to learn more :wink:
For those is SA you should have a look at the NSW package its good and there may be some useful stuff.
And they treat General Rescue as one big course (instead of breaking it up into 3 modules like SA)& GR is not required for SWDO course (highly recommended though)
Anyway thought you guys might be interested.
cheers