Three women’s only training sessions held in the North West Region over the past two weekends have been hailed as a huge success.
A basic skills day was held on Sunday 5th August, with around 20 attendees present, before intermediate and advanced skill sessions were held last weekend.
The sessions were held at CFA’s VEMTC training facility at Huntly, and drew women from right across the region, with the aim to provide support for women in the ranks of CFA.
The basic skills day offered series of drills relating to pump operations including draughting and change overs, radio procedures and basic fireground practices.
The intermediate and advanced skills included drills for breathing apparatus, search and rescue, crew leader training, map reading, AIIMS structures and understanding the effective use of sectors.
The training followed an online survey completed across the North West Region in December 2017, which showed that 71% of women who completed the survey were interested in participating in women’s only training.
A grant from Emergency Management Victoria helped fund the training days, which had been in the works since North West’s Volunteers Sustainability team kick-started the initiative in 2016.
The sessions offered women from across the region to meet and get to know each other, a chance that they wouldn’t usually get day to day given distances between brigades.
Deputy Chief Officer Steph Rotarangi was present for the basic training skills session, and noted it’s importance in both developing skills, and enjoyment.
“Training together with any group across the CFA is fun, but for us to see each other learn some tricks from each other and make some networks, it’s really important,” she said.
“The day was very well organised and our trainers simply fantastic.
“In my career I’ve never had the opportunity to attend a women’s’ training day, and this has been not only meaningful but a lot of fun”.
Participants hailed the “friendly and supportive atmosphere”, with an overwhelming call for more sessions to be held in the future.
Women travelled from across the region to attend the sessions, with Kangaroo Flat, Mount Macedon, Eynesbury, Talbot, Swan Hill, Christmas Hills, Elmore, Goornong, Newstead and Rochester among the brigades represented.