A total of 40 personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) will this year have the opportunity to sharpen their firefighting skills in Malta, the Chief Fire Officer Edwin Blankson has announced.
The first batch of beneficiaries, numbering 20 including 10 females, would depart on Sunday, May 12, 2019, while 20 others would take their turn in September.
The CFO who made this known at his induction ceremony in Accra on Friday, said the annual overseas training package is a product of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Service and E & P Services Limited, a subsidiary of the Alberta Group of Malta.
Last year, 20 personnel from the service benefited from the 10 day training programme.
According to CFO Blankson other overseas training packages were being planned as part of efforts of his administration to build a strong and formidable fire service.
“All these initiatives are geared towards building the capacity of our officers and men to deliver world class fire and resource services to Ghanaians” he said.
In addition to external training opportunities, CFO Blankson said there was the urgent need for the service to improve on its capacity to conduct quality in-service career development training programmes for personnel.
In line with this, he said the GNFS was in search of private partnership to assist it build a modern Fire Service college to serve the country and the sub-region while there was an agenda to upgrade facilities at the Fire Service Academy and Training School.
Already, he said the GNFS had signed an MoU with the Forensic Science Department of the University of Cape Coast, University of Energy and Natural Resources to upgrade skills of personnel in fire investigation and disaster management.
Human resource capacity building CFO Blankson said was one of the core aims of his administration with the others being acquisition of modern equipment, personnel welfare, professionalism and occupational health and safety.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
