Sechelt’s deputy fire chief says the collaboration between SD 46 and local fire departments has provided a learning environment to meet student needs.
The Junior Fire Academy was formed in 2021 to give students across the Sunshine Coast the ability to have hands on learning in emergency services, while providing them with credits towards their future studies.
Deputy chief of prevention Steven Achteberg says there is a standard of which students are expected to perform and a selection process to get in.
“The process doesn’t weigh heavily on the physical component,” he says. “We evaluate a whole variety of skills everything from volunteer work, grades, and attendance in school.
“The physical component only counted for approximately 30 per cent, but we do a panel interview which is 40 per cent of the process.”
Achteberg says the program has become a model to show students what they can do when they apply themselves and each year, he is more and more impressed.
“I love this program, and what it stands for,” he says. “I’m thoroughly impressed each year with these students and how they can absorb so much knowledge so quickly.”
According to Achteberg, the program costs between $10,000 and $15,000 and is privately funded from community organizations on the Sunshine Coast.
Tweleve students attended the academy this year, and Achteberg says graduates of the academy have gone on to obtain positions in Gibsons, Halfmoon Bay, Roberts Creek, and with the BC Wildfire Service.
