Professionalism: education and training for emergency management leaders

Abstract

The bushfires of the 2019–20 summer were followed by a global pandemic. Both events highlighted the importance of skills of emergency managers and their importance in the response to and recovery from these and other emergency events. In Australia, the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements was conducted with the bushfires as a background event and, at the same time, the initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Findings of the royal commission addressed a range of areas including the capability building of emergency managers. These are underpinned in part by the education, training and experience of emergency managers who will implement the royal commission’s findings in the years to come. Education, training and experience are aspects of the human capacities of the emergency management leader and each emergency manager is different. Capability is based on recruitment, education, training, development and experience built up over time. This paper arises from a larger study of the human capacities of emergency managers and examines the supporting education and training opportunities available within the Australian education and training system and how they are affected by the concept of experience. This paper contributes to the understanding of the suite of human capacities required by emergency managers in Australia. The paper draws on research that examines human-capacity lessons from previous events that can develop emergency managers. This paper builds on a previous paper that examined certification for emergency management leaders.