Today I learned...

[Holding Pattern]

I thought a thread where people can talk about new CAP related things they have learned might be useful. I know that I spend more time on captalk using the search button than posting, so when I learn something new, I generally don't post about it, nor did I ask about it here; but perhaps by mentioning it, people with more knowledge can chime in and provide more details about whatever new thing someone learned.

With that introduction done:

Today I learned that FEMA has a professional development series of self study courses.

[GroundHawg]

Did you also know that there a few colleges and universities that award college level credit for them, and degrees in emergency management using them as a basis?

Also, many universities will allow you to use them as elective credits.

[Holding Pattern]

Indeed, and I'm going to start working with some local colleges to see if some of our overachieving cadets in the independent study program can get a bit of a boost on their college planning.

At the rate I'm going through them, I may actually decide to make a short college stint and actually finish my degree.

[TarRiverRat]

I have thought about doing that myself.  It does give a pretty good head start for Emergency Management.

[TexasBEAST]

There are several different tracks of courses to consider taking. One is a sort of basic Professional Development, which is great. Another is for even more Advanced Professional Development (most of the classes for which sound very abstract and irrelevant to grass-roots SAR folks).

Another track is for course Instructors, and another is for course Design, and another for course Management. These sound right up the alley for CAP instructors, designers, and directors/managers/staffers.

I think the Master Exercise Practitioner Program (MEPP) looks really intriguing, as well. Learning a comprehensive, professional way to set up skill drills, FTXs, SARExes/DRExes, SAREvals--especially in a way that will facilitate interagency cooperation--definitely is tempting.

The catch with some of these learning tracks is that the higher up you go, the more in-residence courses they require (like ICS G-300 & G-400). You can't get by with just correspondence courses for all of them.

And as I found with a allegedly free-of-charge All Hazards Strike Team Leader in-residence course that was supposed to be held in TX last fall, these can be real doozies to register for and actually attend.

In TX, the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) Division of Emergency Management (DEM) allows people to set up accounts where they can store digital copies of all their course completion certificates, and which also provides official transcripts summarizing all of these certificates, complete with dates. This comes in really handy when registering for future courses.