The Fire Service College (FSC) case study

Training courses for international contracts

The Fire Service College (FSC) is an award-winning leader in fire and emergency response training and one of the world’s largest operational fire and rescue training facilities. They specialise in providing dedicated training for fire and rescue services, emergency responders and a wide spectrum of commercial and public sector clients around the globe. Their instructors are current serving fire officers seconded from individual fire and rescue services across the UK, and as you’d expect, their tutors are professional and technical experts within their chosen fields.

The challenge

Interpreting
Face-to-face training for
international students
eLearning
Simulated situational training
eDiscovery
Specific terminology


The Fire Service College won a contract to deliver Station Commander training to 100 delegates from the Saudi Fire Service. One of the major challenges for this high-profile contract win was being able to deliver training to over 100 delegates, none of whom spoke English. In order for the instructors to deliver not only classroom-based learning, but also the practical fire ground training which is central to the course, the FSC needed to recruit a large number of qualified interpreters in a short space of time. These interpreters needed to be flexible, reliable, and able to quickly familiarise themselves with the very specific terminology used in the FSC’s training modules.

They also needed to be prepared to interpret in some unusual situations, such as while wearing a gas mask or during a simulated motorway rescue.

 

How we helped

NativeLinguist
Interpreter sourcing
Transfer
Flexible approach
C
Dedicated Project &
Account Manager

With the need for a large number of highly qualified and experienced interpreters, the Fire Service College turned to Capita Translation and interpreting for help. Capita TI was able to source all interpreters required, and through an extensive consultation phase was able to ensure that linguists with the correct skill sets were recruited. After the recruitment phase, and after all project processes were defined, the Fire Service College began training for the first course in June 2013.

From the start of that very first course, Capita TI have proved themselves to be extremely flexible, and exceptionally responsive to the ever-changing demands of a Fire Service training course.

As well as providing an extensive interpreting service, Capita TI also offer a full translation service for all of FSC’s course materials, as well as referring them on to the wider Capita group for other services such as language training.

Most importantly for the FSC, Capita TI’s staff, including dedicated Project and Account Managers, are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week throughout the entire duration of the training courses. This means that the inevitable surprises which come with managing a training course for over 100 international delegates can be dealt with smoothly and efficiently.

FSC interpreters x

The result

After providing interpreters for their first international course back in 2013, the FSC have continued to work with Capita TI to deliver multilingual training courses for over 5 years.

What the Fire Service College said

“The positive feedback that we have had from the client on the interpreting services provided by Capita Translation and Interpreting has meant that they can plan for future courses with confidence in the knowledge that linguistic issues will not provide a stumbling block to our success.”

Richard Johnes, Functional Lead for International Delivery at the Fire Service College.

Don’t just take our word for it – see what Jez Smith, Managing Director of the Fire Service College has to say:

Visit the Fire Service College website