Gyeonggi Province Fire Department Selects Top Fire Safety Education Instructor for Adults...5 Finalists Advance

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] A top-tier fire safety education instructor who can explain essential fire safety knowledge in a professional yet easy-to-understand manner is expected to emerge.

The Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters announced on the 21st that it held the final competition to select a top fire safety education instructor for adults on the 16th at the conference room of Uiwang Fire Station.

At the final competition, 10 firefighters working at fire stations in Gyeonggi Province competed, each selecting one of five lecture fields—▲fire prevention ▲fire safety ▲daily life safety ▲emergency medical response ▲disaster management—and delivering a 20-minute lecture to showcase their skills.

These participants advanced to this stage after passing through two rounds of fierce preliminary competitions: each fire station's individual selection competition in September and the five regional preliminary competitions held on the 7th of last month.

The evaluation was conducted through three methods: lecture evaluation (40 points) and in-depth interview (20 points) by a five-member panel of internal and external judges, and online evaluation (40 points) by a total of 35 people comprising one staff member from each fire station.

As a result of the final judging, the following five were selected as star instructors: ▲Kang Yong-bok, firefighter, Songtan Fire Station (lecture title: Signals from Disaster Cases—Now It's Time to Collaborate) ▲Park Sung-yun, fire chief, Hanam Fire Station (I Am My Home's Fire Safety Guardian) ▲Son Jung-won, fire chief, Ansan Fire Station (Practicing Disaster Education, Realizing Citizen Safety) ▲Lee Kyu-yeop, fire chief, Yeoncheon Fire Station (Safety Recipe That Works in Every Situation) ▲Hwang In-ho, fire chief, Osan Fire Station (Tips to Prevent Welding Spark Fires at Construction Sites) <names in alphabetical order>.

These five will compete for the title of Gyeonggi Province Fire Department's top instructor at the final top instructor selection competition scheduled to be held next month.

The most notable feature of this top instructor selection competition is that it was conducted using the recently completed standard curriculum for adult education in five major fields.

The Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters formed a specialized task force (TF) team of 13 veteran firefighting safety education employees, including award winners from nationwide instructor competitions, and spent six months developing standard curriculum, finally completing the standard curriculum for five fields last month.

The standard curriculum is structured by field in the following order: curriculum summary, lesson planning, teaching methods, scenarios, evaluation (questions), and learning materials. It is characterized by including rich opening and closing remarks, key messages, and case studies, allowing users to select and conveniently use them according to the target audience—adults, elderly people, multicultural families, transportation workers, and others.

Until now, critics have pointed out that without proper standard curriculum, instructors delivering fire safety education have been limited to lectures based on field experience.

Hong Jang-pyo, head of the Daily Safety Division at the Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters, said, "It holds great significance that we held the final top instructor selection competition using the standard curriculum that was created through considerable effort" and added, "We will share effective lecture techniques with the star instructors selected this time and strive to provide higher-level fire safety education to Gyeonggi Province residents."