Twenty junior fire officers are now more equipped to execute their duties more efficiently within the Saint Lucia Fire Service, after completing the inaugural Junior Officer Leader Academy in Leadership and Incident Command.
The one week academy which was also attended by fire officers from St. Croix, BVI, Montserrat, and Dominica, ended in Saint Lucia on Friday with a special graduation.
Speaking at the ceremony Home Affairs Minister Senator Hon. Guy Mayers called on the participants to utilise the lessons learnt to foster positive change within the respective organisations.
“Knowledge gained and not used is useless so I'm hoping that you will not just hold this information to yourself but you will share it with your colleagues so that at the end of the day you can provide a better service as fire fighters within your respective organisations,” said Home Affairs Minister Senator Hon. Guy Mayers.
The Junior Officers Leadership Academy was designed to prepare the fire fighters to provide a more efficient and professional service to Caribbean people, whenever they are called upon.
Saint Lucia's Chief Fire Officer, Mr Leslie Fontenelle, is confident that the training in Leadership and Incident Command, will redound to the futuristic development of the Fire Services across the Caribbean.
“In this training programme, I believe that we have created a platform where we can better appreciate the processes that obtain with fire departments and how critical they are to our success as organisations. With this appreciation, we can now begin to assess the future development of such organisations and develop new strategies to lead them in this changing environment,” Mr. Fontenelle added.
The Junior Officers Leadership Academy was conducted by the Caribbean Association of Fire Chiefs.
A similar programme for senior fire officers is being developed and is expected to be unveiled in coming months.
