Preliminary meeting: Erasmus+ project "Train the trainer"

5  Romanian officers ( fire fighters): 1 of the operational headquarter of Bucharest, 2 from ISU Resita and 2 from ISU Caransebes were guests of the Romanian comitee of Geel from September 23 - 27. After the visit of Marc and Bart in May 2015 it was decided to write an Erasmus + project. For this, there was a consultation necessary to see what we want to accomplish with this project. Our goal is to compare training methods, especially with regard to: promote security, new techniques, imminent dangers from extinguishing works and collaboration between volunteer and professional firefighters. 

Wednesday, September 23, the guests were welcomed at the fire station in Geel by Colonel Koen Bollen, zone Kempen and Mayor Vera Celis. This was followed by a guided tour by the  fire commander of Geel, Gert Kempen and instructor Bart Staquet

Thursday and Friday they stayed on Campus Vesta, the provincial training center for firemen, police etc. Patrick Van den Nieuwenhof, who 'll coordinate the project from ADR. Bart Staquet: professional firefighter zone Kempen- Geel and instructor Campus Vesta, Kris Vanhout principal coordinator firefighters Campus Vesta, Marc Op de Beeck: volunteer firefighter Geel and member of Roemeniëcomité and Paul Helsen, a member Roemeniëcomité also took part in these days. In addition to the meetings, a plant tour was made on Campus Vesta  to determine which facilities can be used for fire drills in this project.

For an Erasmus + project there are at least three EU countries necessary. Therefore, we also contacted  the "International co-ordinators of the provincial fire brigade headquarters" in Rzeszow - Poland. Two officers were scheduled to be present  these days but they were prevented at the last moment by the problems of refugees. They had to stay in Poland.

Thursday evening they attended  a training of a mixed team of volunteers and professional firefighters in Geel.

Saturday morning they visited BIG, the fire information center for dangerous goods in Geel. BIG likes also to participate in the project.

Patrick 'll distill from these three days  a project "Train the Trainer". He will write and submit it to Europe in March 2016. If approved, he will also do the follow up, submit reports, etc. In this project Campus Vesta and BIG like to be involved. The aim is to train the Romanian instructors in order to train later on the professional  and volunteer teams  in Romania. {gallery}brandweersept2015{/gallery}