Developing a training program that prepares you and your team to respond when something occurs is vital to ensure your organization is ready for unexpected events. To effectively prepare for an event, there is a process you can follow that will help you come up with a plan.
Program Evolution
A complete training program will follow this evolution:
- Hazard Identification – Conduct an analysis of your organization or jurisdiction and determine which threats/hazards are present.
- Capability Development – A capability is how you will respond to a hazard. You might use a single capability or combine several.
- Instruction – Once a capability is developed, all stakeholders need to be trained in its use based on their function.
- Practice/Drills – After the initial training, the capability needs to be practiced. This is commonly accomplished through drills.
- Functional Exercise – Once the drills are being performed to standard, the organization may wish to move on to a more complex form of training, a functional exercise. A functional exercise may incorporate other organizations or other departments to train interagency coordination or other relevant skills.
- Full-Scale Exercise – A full-scale exercise is a training event that simulates the real threat/hazard as closely as is appropriate for the audience. All stakeholders’ actions will be conducted as they would on the day of an incident.
After Action Reviews (AARs) – After every phase of the process, an AAR must be completed to ensure improvement throughout the process and over time. This could be as simple as a question-and-answer session (with each question recorded to ensure the concerns are covered next time) or as complex as an externally facilitated AAR. Regardless of the method used, all data must be recorded in order to develop improvement plans.
Example – Evacuation Capability Training Program Evolution
A common example of this evolution is the evacuation capability conducted in every school across the United States. The evacuation capability was first developed in response to injuries and deaths due to school fires. To increase safety, it was implemented to help schools and other large organizations exit a facility in an orderly and efficient manner.
We can see how the training program was developed by looking at each part of our evolution.
- Hazard Identification – Fires had caused incidents that led to injuries and death. Fires were determined to be a sufficient enough hazard to necessitate a response.
- Capability Development – The response that was developed was an orderly and efficient means of evacuation out of the school building to a safe location where accountability could be taken and the school population would await further direction.
- Instruction – The evacuation capability is often trained at the beginning of the school year. Teachers will typically discuss how the evacuation will occur and what the students should do if the fire alarm goes off or if they are told to evacuate for any other reason.
- Practice/Drills – After training all students and staff, the school will organize an evacuation drill. It is generally advisable to inform everyone in advance about the first drill to alleviate stress and anxiety regarding the event; this approach also enhances its effectiveness as a learning opportunity. Drills typically occur several times each year, with subsequent drills being surprise events to better prepare everyone. As the school’s performance in drills improves, the complexity can increase. Common enhancements include transitioning from the initial rally point to a more distant evacuation site or blocking certain exits, which requires students and staff to think critically about alternative routes if the usual evacuation path is unavailable.
- Functional Exercise – For an evacuation drill, the functional exercise will typically be similar to the drill for most participants. At the school leadership level, however, they will conduct additional coordination training/testing. Testing communication with the district office, fire, police, and EMS is common. Additionally, they will work through what dismissal and possibly reunification will look like if they cannot return to the school. First responders may be on the scene to interact with staff and students, walking through their roles.
- Full-Scale Exercise – For an evacuation drill, a full-scale exercise will simulate the evacuation process and first responder response as realistically as possible. Simulating an actual threat, such as a fire or smoke, is not appropriate, but the rest of the reaction is typically included.
- In a full-scale exercise:
- The alarm will go off, or instructions to evacuate will be given.
- Evacuation will occur, potentially with increased complexity, such as locked doors or blocked hallways (not using realistic threats).
- First responders will respond, often from their stations, to test response time but occasionally from a staging area.
- Students and staff will move to an evacuation area farther away from the school to not impede the first responder’s response.
- Dismissal will occur from that farther away location, or students and staff will be transported to a reunification site for dismissal.
- District office will coordinate with the community to disseminate messaging.
- First responders will enter the building and simulate all tasks they would typically complete
- District public information officer will send out press releases if appropriate.
- All groups demobilize
- Additional actions other than those listed, will be conducted as necessary.
- In a full-scale exercise:
One note I like to point out is that the evacuation capability is chronically underutilized within schools. It is often incorrectly referred to as a fire drill. In reality, it is more accurately defined as an evacuation capability that will be implemented any time students and staff need to exit a school building due to an unforeseen circumstance.
If you need any assistance developing a training program for your reunification capability, please reach out and let us know how we can help.
