Question for Career Firefighters (or their spouses)

[Tigger&Belle]

I'm curious how many career firefighters have college degrees in a fire related field of study. My DD's boyfriend is currently going to a community college. His original plan was to get a degree from there (I forgot the actual degree, but a fire related degree) and then go onto a 4 year college to get a BS in a fire related course of study. But, it looks like he will probably get hired in our county (he did excellent on the oral interview and only needs to pass the physical test, which he did pass in a nearby county). So, if he does get hired he will have a 22 week recruit class 7-5, M-F (sounds hard!) and then will go to work. He hopes to take online classes at that point to finish his 2 year degree (I would think he'd be about done with that).

Sorry so long winded... , but my real question is the percentage of career firefighters with degrees. I'm assuming that to later move up the ranks a degree would help with that, but how important if any is the degree?

Thanks!

 

[Buckalew11]

My Dh has a 4 year degree in business administration (I think that is what you get when you don't know what to get! LOL ) Anyway, he has been a career FF for many years--he's 45yo. He was the only one in our city department with a 4 yr.degree. In our local department it didn't really matter if you had a degree to move up or not--it was all politics and how often you'd kiss the chief's butt. (sorry). DH did move up the latter but was actually the first person in the city's history to go in and ask to be demoted! (eek) Let's just say he isn't much of a brown noser.

He is planning to go on and get his master's in Fire Science after another arm surgery because the department he is at now will pay for it. It will be a big benefit to him to have that degree.

Good luck to your DD's boyfriend.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

He is planning to go on and get his master's in Fire Science after another arm surgery because the department he is at now will pay for it. It will be a big benefit to him to have that degree.

Thanks for your thoughts!

In what way will the fire science degree be a benefit to him?

 

[MickeysMommy]

My ex husband is a Deputy Chief in our city's fire department and he always wondered why people went to school to get the degree when our city sends you to the same school. I guess because the city will pay rather than you paying is his point. (He went to college for 2 years and his field of study was partying)

 

[Tigger&Belle]

My ex husband is a Deputy Chief in our city's fire department and he always wondered why people went to school to get the degree when our city sends you to the same school. I guess because the city will pay rather than you paying is his point. (He went to college for 2 years and his field of study was partying)

My DD's boyfriend was going (is going, actually) to school while waiting to get hired. I don't know, but I think that he wasn't really expecting to get hired yet since he said that it's a hard county to get hired for.

Hopefully his field of study is not partying, especially while dating my DD!

Hopefully our county pays for the education, too since I know he does want to get his degree. He seems to be a hard working kid (19yo) who has wanted to be a firefighter since he was a kid.

 

[Buckalew11]

Having a degree in Fire Science will allow DH to get a job anywhere (not exactly fighting fires though) esp. because of the threat of terrorism in the world. He works at a nuclear power plant in their fire department. Way better money that a regular department. FFs definitely don't work for the money, that is for sure!
Oh and the city he did work at did pay him a little extra for having his degree but not much. They didn't pay for you to get your degree of any kind. DH even had to pay to become a paramedic. He was their first (which they also didn't compensate for ) but now they require you to at least be an EMT and they want paramedics.

Any schooling he can get will benefit him. Extrication classes, haz-mat, etc. Tell him to take a lot of specialized classes. DH looks great on paper, that is for sure.

And surprisingly our city department paid almost double what Knoxville City paid. That will always shock me! So, you never know where the money will be in a fire department!

 

[mamalle]

Nope- my dh does not have a degree and he is a firefighter medic since 1994. when he went it wasn't a AA degree yet and his medic schooling was a private one that doesnt tranfer over. alot of the older guys are in the same boat. For dh it isnt worth it. He has no desire to go any further than driver so he doesnt need a degree. If he wanted to stay and work at the college teaching emts their basic stuff in the lab-well thats a different story. Its not worth it to him for working there 4 times a month and having to take a class every semester- once a week. ( Im sure he would be retired before he gets his degree ) it takes time away from us and would cost him more money in the long run. He does take specialized classes that are paid by the dept and thats enough for him. Now adays if you want to be a medic- you will end up getting your AA degree along the way since the community colleges have the programs now. dh's dept pays very well and its only going up from here so it isnt a issue of making more money for him. Its the same for nursing- it used to be you would get paid more if you have your bachelors degree- not so now. we all get paid the same.. Down here it used to be if you had your fire/emt some departments would hire you and send you to school for your medic. not so too much anymore- alot of them want medics to make more ALS engines. dh's dept has one brutual recruit class for 13 weeks, monday-friday all day and than some. our county is growing so that they started doing them year round.. its a great profession IMO. it works well for our family. You cant beat working 24 on and 48 off and every three weeks having 5 days off. Not to mention the pay, benefits and great retirement.. good luck!

 

[Buckalew11]

Wow. That 5 days off every 3 weeks sounds mighty nice. DH used to work 24 on and 48 off but no 5 days off! We still liked it! Right now he is working 7-3 weekdays. It is nice to have him home every night and he is able to do ballgames and such (like help with 6th grade math homework! LOL)

 

[mamalle]

its called a kelly week-dh works a 48 hr work week and every 3rd week gets that 24 off. He gets paid for 96 hrs every two weeks regardless. It works very well for us esp for vacation time. we schedule our vacations around it and he only needs a day or two. we are trying to only take 4 days year, so he can retire with 500 and cash it in. some are trying to make it 24 on and 72 off so there are no more kelly weeks- another dept does it but I hope dh's doesnt move to that. He volunteers for field trips etc and if he needs a day off there are always exchanges. He is going to be off his kelly week for thanksgiving and has a exchange due to him so he will be off for 8 days without taking vacation time. definitely a perk working for the FD.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

The kelly week is interesting. I think our county is 24 hours on and then 48 off, not sure about the extra day off every 5 days.

 

[DVC-Don]

Back when I was on that job (late 1960's through the 70's) very few of us had a degree (I did after I moved on to police work). A lot of us did take the community college courses as the courses were free for active duty FF. If someone did get a degree, it meant a bump in pay. Mostly the upper levels got their degrees. The city next to us here works 24 on, 72 off.

 

[Blueeyes101817]

My dad does not....but my brother is going either for firefighting or police officer and he is in a 2 year right now, but probably will not go any further

 

[mamalle]

I believe it has to do with overtime- since every three weeks they would end up with 3 days so they would have to pay them more. dh would try and explain it to me but its still kinda confusing..

 

[Jen_in_NH]

DH and I are both full time firefighters. We both have degrees, but not in fire science. He has an associates in electrical design, and I have a master's as a PA. No one else on both our departments has a degree. Most of the job postings in our area don't require one, especially for entry level positions. Captains and up seem to be asked about degrees.

Jen