Adult learning through fire and emergency service organisations in small and remote Australian towns

• Fire and emergency service organisations are important locations within rural and remote communities of Australia for adult learning, particularly for men.

• A relatively high proportion (40%) of fire and emergency service volunteers in rural and remote areas have not completed any formal education beyond Year 10. Their local fire and emergency service organisation provides a community context for them to be engaged in new forms of learning.

• Increasing community expectations, legal and other pressures are driving a demand for more formal training and assessment of volunteers. Although some volunteers are attracted by the prospect of gaining qualifications in a range of skills that can be used within and outside the organisation, others are reconsidering their voluntary commitment because of perceived difficulties with what they regard as unnecessary external imposition of higher and more formal demands.

• A proportion of volunteers (at least 3 in every 20) can be expected to have some difficulties with the standard training and assessment offered because of limited communication and/or literacy skills. This proportion is likely to increase as training and assessment demands increase.

• Literacy and communication skills training must be integrated within emergency services practice, delivered in context and accessible to all.

• Developing the skills of key people to mentor and support volunteers with low literacy skills as they complete regular training will be important to help overcome barriers to active membership. Trainers and assessors need to be skilled in working with a range of learners as well as in technical skills. Brigade/unit and regional officers may also benefit from a greater understanding of how they can assist a range of learners. One way to develop these skills is to create stronger links with local adult learning organisations experienced in providing literacy and/or communication skills training to people with a range of skills.

• Adult learning organisations, where they exist in small and remote communities, have traditionally not been involved with the training of fire and emergency service volunteers. There are opportunities to rethink networks and funding models to facilitate training through existing local structures, with flow-on effects to the community.

Communities in rural and remote Australia rely largely on volunteers to respond to fires and other emergencies in their area. This response is generally provided by local fire brigades and state and territory emergency service (SES) units. Increasing community expectations of these organisations and legal and other pressures are driving changes to the way volunteers are trained and assessed. This research investigated the impact literacy levels may be having on the ability of volunteers to meet these changing demands, the communication skills and other literacies needed by members of these organisations, and the role the organisations have in developing the skills of people in rural and remote communities.

To investigate these issues a study was undertaken of 20 fire brigades and state emergency service units in small and remote communities across five states-New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. Members were surveyed and interviewed on site. In all, 329 survey returns were received (a response rate of 73%) and 230 volunteers and other community members took part in focus group interviews.

The research found that local fire brigades and state emergency service units are important sources and sites of adult learning in rural and remote communities. Apart from the important role of facilitating social capital-trust, reciprocity, networks-and encouraging informal learning through regular training, they offer opportunities for volunteers, particularly men, to engage in formally accredited learning. In some small and remote communities these organisations are the only local source of accredited learning opportunities.

Volunteers in fire and emergency service organisations identify as keen learners, and almost all are involved in other local community organisations. The skills they learn through their public safety organisations are transferable to, and demonstrably useful in, other aspects of their community, home and work life. In this respect, the training being undertaken at local fire brigades and state emergency service units is helping to build the capacity of communities and enterprises in rural and remote Australia.

The introduction of more formalised training and assessment is presenting challenges as well as opportunities, however. Some volunteers, particularly those in older age groups, are reported to have left or are reconsidering their participation because of the perceived increasing educational demands being placed on them. There are various reasons for this, including a belief that the more formal approach to training is unnecessary and that prior learning, skills and knowledge developed during years of experience are not being recognised appropriately. Some have expressed an inability or unwillingness to devote additional time to that already being volunteered. There is also concern related to the ability of some to successfully complete formal assessments because of literacy or other communication skills issues.

Of those surveyed, 15% indicated that literacy was an issue for them, and a similar proportion indicated that difficulties with their communication skills affected their ability to undertake some of their brigade/unit training. Given that these figures come from responses to a written survey, and that people are more likely to over-rate their literacy skills than under-rate them (ABS 1997), the actual proportion of volunteers having difficulty meeting the changing training and assessment requirements is likely to be higher than the figures suggest.

The volunteers in this study valued hands-on and practical training in 'real' situations most highly and believed this was the best way to learn and to be taught: 'there is no substitute for experience'. A relatively high proportion (40%) of volunteers surveyed had not completed any formal education beyond Year 10, particularly in the more remote areas where volunteers are typically older. There was also considerably less access to other sources of adult learning in more remote areas, particularly to programs incorporating literacy and/or communication skills.

Difficulties in attracting and retaining volunteers were identified as an important issue in most brigades and units surveyed. It is therefore important to reduce any unnecessary barriers to participation such as discouraging people with literacy and/or communication skills issues from being active members. This is particularly true for older, more experienced and valued members of these organisations. Strategies to overcome the potential barriers to participation include ensuring the formal training and assessment required relates to the local situation, adapting training and assessment materials to take account of the characteristics and interests of the learners and including as much hands-on, practical training as possible.

The skills most highly valued by the volunteers surveyed were understanding and passing on spoken messages, reading maps of both familiar and unfamiliar areas, and reading and understanding the dials on equipment. The respondents' self-rating of their abilities on these and other communication skills indicate there are considerable training needs in a number of areas.

Indeed, 78% of those surveyed 'were' or 'might be' interested in additional communication skills training. The areas of most interest were reading maps of unfamiliar and familiar areas, using computers to find information and prepare documents, conducting briefings, writing reports, logging radio messages and speaking in public. Very little or no formal training in these areas was being offered locally to the brigades and units visited for this research, particularly in the fire organisations.

Most of those surveyed (72%) would prefer any communication skills training to be provided through their public safety organisation by either a trainer from within their brigade/unit or by someone from outside their local brigade/unit who is an emergency service trainer. A substantial minority (23%) would prefer the training to be provided by another local trainer who is not necessarily involved with their public safety organisation. The majority (82%) would like the training to be provided locally.

As well as interviewing volunteer firefighters and emergency service members, this research also involved interviewing representatives of other organisations in the local communities providing adult learning. Network diagrams (Golding 2002) were developed independently by both an adult learning representative and key informants in the brigade/unit to give an indication of the links between these and other local organisations. It was clear from both the network diagrams and the interviews that although there is considerable goodwill and positive feeling between these organisations, the current links between them are quite weak or non-existent. Indeed, in some locations the local brigade/unit key informants were unaware of the other sources of adult learning that were available locally. There is considerable potential to develop these links further and to share resources and skills to benefit local public safety volunteers. Any communication skills training provided through or with the support of these organisations would need to be directly related to the regular brigade/unit training and focused on the communication skills most highly valued by volunteers or in the areas of interest outlined earlier. The most significant barriers to providing such training would be the availability of sufficient funding and appropriate trainers with time available.

Given the dearth of literacy and/or communication skills training available in some of the communities visited, the overwhelming preference for practical, hands-on learning and the preference of many volunteers for any training to be provided by someone from within (and usually at) their public safety organisation, another strategy for developing the skills of volunteers would be to further develop the abilities of trainers to deal with the wide range of learners in their training groups. Furthermore, the local trainers and other key people within the public safety organisations could act as 'mentors' or support people for those currently experiencing difficulty with literacy, communication or study skills.

The data from this study suggest that local public safety organisations are unlikely to be interested in providing training in literacy per se, particularly as there is a strong belief that it is the 'team' that needs to have the full range of skills rather than each individual. Team members are willing and able to work with each other's strengths and to accommodate for any areas where there are perceived deficiencies. Despite this, it is clear that the literacy and numeracy and 'learning to learn' demands on individual volunteers are going to increase over time in response to community expectations and legal pressures. This will, in turn, put pressure on trainers and assessors to develop their skills further to ensure all volunteers can continue to access the training required. This will be best done by embedding the development of literacy and communication skills into training which is of direct use or interest to volunteers in their public safety role.

Local fire brigades and emergency service units in rural and remote parts of Australia have the potential to provide training in a range of literacies to an otherwise difficult to reach cohort of (mainly) adult males. The provision of learning in the area between skills known to be of interest to volunteers (in reading maps, using computers, conducting briefings, speaking in public, writing reports and logging messages) and skills that would improve emergency response could serve as an accessible and efficient adult gateway to several new and emerging literacies in information and computer technologies for an already captive group of learners. This potential particularly includes the use of global positioning systems (for location and map reading) and the use of the internet (for information gathering, weather and fire prediction and communication by email with similar organisations). In the process, valuable skills will be developed in 'learning how to learn' that have broader benefits to individuals, families, enterprises and communities.