Bibb County high school students can now train as firefighters, earn college credits
Beginning this fall, students can get hands-on job training, earn college credit, and launch a career in firefighting.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — High school students in Bibb County now have an opportunity to receive hands-on job training and earn college credit while pursuing a career in firefighting. Macon-Bibb Fire Department Chief Shane Edwards announced a new program Friday that will provide high school students with real-world work experience at the department’s Training Academy.
“They’ll actually get on the bus, they’ll come out here to our training complex, and they’ll actually partake in firefighting exercises weekly while they’re in school,” Edwards said.
The program was established through a three-year collaboration among the fire department, Central Georgia Technical College (CGTC), and the Bibb County School District. High school seniors enrolled at the Hutchings Career Academy in Macon can earn college credits through classes offered by the fire department.
“Being able to offer a pathway such as the firefighter pathway will allow us to provide students with stackable credentials, which means that a student will walk across the graduation stage and end up with a career,” Hutchings CEO Dr. Cassandra Miller-Washington said.
Students must apply to participate in the program. Once selected, they will receive training five days a week. The courses offered include Firefighter I in the fall and HazMat training in the spring of the following year.
“It gives an opportunity for you to actually be mentored,” Miller-Washington said. “You’re going to be trained right here on the same facility where other adults are training.”
Chief Edwards says that with public safety facing recruitment and retaining shortages, this opportunity will not only help the Macon-Bibb Fire Department, but also other departments.
“I don’t want our firefighters getting burnt out,” Edwards said. “This is a great opportunity for 20 students that graduate to be able to come into the Macon-Bibb Fire Department and to fill some of those vacancies.”
The program will allow the Fire Department to recruit more firefighters. Once graduates have completed the program, they will be eligible for a job as soon as they graduate.
“So our goal is that when that student walks across that stage and they receive their diploma from the high school Superintendent, that Fire Chief can be standing there and also hand them a helmet, and have a job right when they walk off that stage,” Edwards said.
Chief Edwards says this is a great opportunity for students to have a career that allows them to stay in their hometown and serve their community.
Classes are set to begin this fall.
