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Fire Systems Training

Technical training on fire and security systems is available within South Africa from most suppliers of equipment and in-house training for installation staff is generally provided by the installation companies themselves. There are very few specialised training organisations providing independent courses.

Fire Systems Training is one such service provider offering courses on fire detection systems and gaseous suppression systems. The concentration of Fire Systems Training is that of teaching South African standards. Unlike the security industry, there are legislated standards for the design and installation of fire systems, and it is training on these standards that Fire Systems Training offers.

There are five national standards training courses the company offers to the South African public. “Operational for eight years, we have trained over one thousand individuals countrywide. We have taken our training courses to Namibia, Zambia and Botswana,” says business owner Keith Norgate.

Weekly courses are available in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town from trainers with over 25 years’ experience in these selected fields of expertise. Fire Systems Training often conducts training courses for companies at its own offices providing economical solutions where several staff can be trained at once.

The company offers training to technicians, designers, consultants, end-users and insurance assessors all of whom receive detailed manuals and certificates of competency for the various subjects. Fire Systems Training courses have been accredited by the FDIA and it runs its training programmes from a fully equipped training centre close to the airport in Edenvale.

Fire Systems Training is instrumental in assisting SAQCC Fire in developing a skills programme of training for the upliftment of technicians in the industry. Registration of technicians is now a legal requirement in terms of the OSHA act and a directive from the Department of Labour for persons working on fire detection and gaseous fire suppression systems.

In awarding the SAQCC Fire with this task it was a condition of the Department of Labour that a skills training programmes be developed to provide a learning and educational path for persons to enter the fire industry and have a career path to, eventually, a recognised qualification. The SAQCC Fire has determined that 23 separate training courses be made available for technicians to enter and progress within the industry.

Fire Systems Training is busy re-aligning its current courses and developing further courses to meet the requirements of the SAQCC Fire.

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