Advancing Disaster Resilience through Targeted Training: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Developing and Educating Safety and Security Personnel

Abstract

Responding to the continuing growth of protection complexity and/or private sector issues pertaining to safety and security, continuous training revisions are mandatory. The SETOFF project deals with this need, enhancing the preparedness of the targeted personnel through this particular e-training program. The SETOFF project employs a comprehensive needs analysis, and focuses on the treatment of specific skill gaps so as to create an e-training procedure, transversally designed, and specially oriented to all safety and security personnel involved in natural disaster management. The present study reveals critical aspects of personnel’s skills inadequacies and false assessment of the triggering primary causes. Training expectations usually diverge from the actual needs due to inappropriate/misleading analysis of natural and man-made disasters, inefficient assessment of the evolving dynamics, deficit with respect to training tactics, and limited access to actual disaster management drills. The particular transversal approach pursues that training content is adaptive and comprehensive, effectively dealing with issues of varying conditions which Safety and Security personnel are expected to encounter with success, maintaining at the same time the cohesive framework of the SETOFF Project. The findings of the present study/research are expected to provide valuable guidance for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, establishing a sustainable and resilient operating frame in natural disaster training for the future.