History was made at CFPA-E’s super week in Helsinki

CFPA-E had a real super week in Finland as four of its Commissions (Marketing and Information Commission, Guideline Commission, Training Commission and Security Commission) held their meetings in Helsinki from April 13^th to 17^th, 2015. Hosted by the Finnish National Rescue Association SPEK, the week culminated in a historical joint meeting between Training and Guidelines Commissions on April 16^th. A first of its kind – but not the last.

The aim of the joint meeting was to increase the collaboration between the two Commissions. Through joint work, it is possible to integrate guidelines better into the training material done in the Training Commission and on the other hand it is important for the Training Commission to be able to express what sort of guidelines would be useful from the Guideline Commission for their needs.

In the meeting the two Commissions decided to gather guidelines into different packages which would also include complementary CFPA-E training courses. Another topic for discussion was adapting guidelines and courses for national requirements. The Commissions also decided to establish a joint working group to design a common European training package for fire engineers.

Vice chair of the Training Commission, Tobias Plantin from The Swedish Fire Protection Association SFPA sees the co-operation as a positive thing.

• Guidelines and training courses often go hand in hand. The creation of packages is also a very good idea, especially from a client’s point of view. This is a very good start for the joint work of the Commissions, stated Plantin.

Miguel Vidueira from Spanish CEPREVEN and who is the chairman of the Guideline Commission agrees with Plantin. For Vidueira, the meeting was a success.

• Up until today we have done our separate work, but it is obvious that these two Commissions have joint areas of interests which we can improve. The end result of the joint meeting was even a bit of a positive surprise as we were able to achieve concrete decisions and weren’t stuck in a level of theory and ideas, says Vidueira.

The two Commissions want to continue this fruitful co-operation also in the future but there needs to be a careful selection of joint topics in order to make the most of the available resources.

• The main goal is that everyone in Europe recognizes CFPA-E as the number one brand for fire safety. We are heading this way but we are not there yet. Member countries in CFPA-E have started to see the added value of networking and co-operation which is a really positive thing. Our goal is to serve our customers the best way we can, and this common cause is achieved only through joint effort by the member states, concludes Vidueira.

Text & image: Taina Hanhikoski, The Finnish National Rescue Association SPEK