State Emergency Service Volunteers are ordinary people who do extraordinary things for their community. There are positions in State Emergency Service (SES) units for people from all walks of life, with all types of talents.

The SES has approximately 2,500 highly trained volunteers who donate their time and skills to help Western Australians during emergencies. They can be called out to incidents at any hour of the day or night and are not paid for their services.

The SES is focused on ensuring that Western Australian communities can cope with emergencies. It has the lead role in managing the State's actions for floods, cyclones, storms, earthquakes and tsunami threats as well as assisting other agencies in their roles.

The SES functions are:

• Raise, train and equip an effective Volunteer based emergency service;
• Be a 'hazard management agency' for flood, cyclone, storm, tsunami, and earthquake;
• Be a 'combat agency' for land search, vehicle rescue (in specified areas), vertical rescue. cliff and cave rescue;
• Act in a support role to other combat agencies;
• Support emergency management activities at state, regional and local level; and
• Act in support of the Police in tasks acceptable to the Volunteers but excluding those where it is likely that offenders will be present.

When requested by police, SES volunteers search for missing people on foot, on horseback, with tracker dogs and by air. SES volunteers also perform challenging rescues in caves and on cliffs.

In some areas of the State, SES volunteers do the difficult job of freeing people trapped in vehicles after road crashes.

The SES is part of the Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia (FESA).

Training

The SES delivers customised training to groups and individuals. Information-based sessions are normally run indoors using a variety of training aids and methods. Skills-based sessions are delivered in a safe, realistic environment, often outdoors, using equipment and procedures identical to those encountered on-the-job.

The training includes rescue skills, first aid and casualty handling, map reading and navigation, communications, operations, leadership and additional specialised skills.

Participant's Workbooks are provided during most courses as resource and reference material and some are available on floppy disk or CD-Roms. Participants are encouraged to learn at their own pace and reasonable assistance is provided where necessary to accommodate special needs.

The SES is obliged to provide competent, qualified Trainers / Assessors to conduct training. Trainers / Assessors hold nationally-recognised qualifications and maintain competence in the subjects they deliver.

Most units train once a week and conduct, on average, a weekend exercise once every two to three months.

After participating in training, SES volunteers can undertake many roles including:

• Cyclone and flood response
• Cliff / cave rescue
• Road accident rescue (in specified areas)
• Air search observation
• Land search and rescue
• Storm damage relief
• Tracker dog handling
• Mounted search
• Communications
• Management of the emergency coordination centre using computer systems

Assessment

The SES offers assessment opportunities before, during and after training has occurred. Competence is recognised using an open, supportive process which ensures Participants are aware of the precise requirements of their assessment.

Qualified Trainers / Assessors are used to conduct assessments. They have current competence in the subjects they assess.

Because of the urgent and sometimes dangerous nature of emergency activities, assessments will not be conducted during operations. Typical events are simulated by providing safe, controlled scenarios for Participants to demonstrate their skills.

To assess knowledge, Participants are questioned, and their answers are compared to the industry standard. In some circumstances, Participants may not need to write their answers; a verbal response may be as acceptable.

Participants are deemed 'competent' when they can consistently demonstrate their skills and explain their knowledge to the standard required in a particular subject area.

All achievements are record and qualifications are awarded to Participants as they complete each training program. A Participant can request a copy of their training or achievement record a any time.

Qualifications

Courses conducted within SES will be aligned to the relevant Unit/s of Competency within the Public Safety Training Package or other national training packages. Participants who successfully complete training courses are awarded "Statements of Attainment' for the relevant Unit/s of Competency.

Courses and their relevant Unit/s of Competency are in line with the roles and responsibilities with in SES.

The following nationally recognised qualifications with be awarded with the required Units of Competency have be obtained:

• Certificate II in Public Safety (SES Rescue)
• Certificate II in Public Safety (SES Operations)
• Certificate III in Public Safety (SES Rescue)
• Certificate III in Public Safety (SES Operations)
• Certificate IV in Public Safety (Emergency Services Leadership)
• Diploma in Public Safety (SES Operations Management)
• Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment and Training

Participants receive one of the qualification listed above or a Statement of Attainment for each unit of competency successfully completed.