The firefighter cadet program ? which trains high school students in firefighting, emergency medical assistance and rescue skills ? will return to Anne Arundel County.
“A fire service depends on having an insert of new people,” said Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Association President David Lewis, who helped plan the program.
“The program serves as a recruitment ground for both volunteers and those who want to pursue firefighting as a career,” Lewis said.
Students can receive high school and college credit as they become certified as emergency medical technicians, firefighters and rescue technicians. Classes will be held at the Anne Arundel County Fire Department Training Academy in Millersville.
The student firefighter cadet program was discontinued last school year, when students had disciplinary and scheduling problems that made it difficult to administer, said Battalion Chief Michael Cox, a county fire spokesman.
County Fire Chief David Stokes and Lewis met with school officials this month to develop a new plan to address the concerns.
The new program will be available only to high school seniors who have at least a 2.5 grade point average, a release from the fire department stated.
Previously, it was available to juniors as well, and the minimum grade point average was 2.0.
“They chose to limit it to just seniors, hoping that another year allows the students to be more mature and successful in the program,” Cox said.
Students? attendance records will also be a criteria for acceptance into the program, Lewis said.
The association will team up with the Anne Arundel County Fire Department and The Center for Applied Technology North, the public school system?s career and technology school, to enact the program.
“The skills [students] would learn would teach them discipline and how to work as part of a team,” Cox said. “They would be provided with skills to help their community.”
