The Certificate in Fire Service Administration (CFSA) is offered fully online. It was created by Dalhousie University's Faculty of Open Learning & Career Development to help fire service officers develop their administrative and managerial skills.
By the time fire service officers are promoted to administrative positions in their departments they have years of fireground training and experience. At this point in their careers they need a new kind of training to prepare them for the new challenges they face.
Who Should Take This Certificate?
Any graduate of the Certificate in Fire Service Leadership.
How Will You Benefit?
The Certificate in Fire Service Administration can help:
- provide participants with skills that enable them to be better managers and leaders within the fire departments.
- instill a breadth and depth of knowledge that will enable participants to better manage their fire departments.
Certificate Requirements
The certificate consists of nine courses over at least 306 hours. The six required courses (216 hours) are:
- OLCD-FIRE0022 Program Evaluation and Statistics
- OLCD-FIRE0019 Municipal Finance
- OLCD-FIRE0012 Fire Department Human Resource Management I
- OLCD-LGOV0015 Municipal Law (Formerly OLCD-FIRE0015 Fire Service Law)
- OLCD-FIRE0016 Fire Service Strategic Planning
- and either OLCD-FIRE0018 Fire Suppression Management or OLCD-FIRE0014 Fire Prevention Management
You can select three electives (at least 90 hours) from the options below:
- OLCD-FIRE0010 Disaster Management and the Fire Department
- OLCD-FIRE0011 Emergency Medical Service Management and the Fire Department
- OLCD-FIRE0013 Fire Department Human Resource Management II
- OLCD-LGOV0014 Local Government (formerly OLCD-FIRE0020 Municipal Government and Service Delivery)
- OLCD-FIRE0028 Theoretical Foundations of Incident Command: Acting
- OLCD-FIRE0029 Theoretical Foundations of Incident Command: Thinking
- OLCD-PALS0010 Coaching Skills for Leaders
- OLCD-PALS0012 Leadership Dynamics
- OLCD-PALS0031 Organizational Behaviour
- OLCD-PALS0032 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Fees and Schedule
See each course for the applicable tuition fee. Courses start in September, January and April. Each course is offered at least once a year.
Note: Enrolment in one of the required courses listed above automatically enrols you into the Certificate in Fire Service Administration. There is no obligation to complete the certificate requirements.
Note: CFSA courses may use one or more of the books that were required for the CFSL program. Some of the CFSA textbooks are also used for more than one CFSA course. Be sure to keep all of your books in a safe place until you have completely finished your studies with us. It is your responsibility to ensure you have the correct books and edition(s) by reviewing the textbook list on the website prior to the start of each course.
For assistance or more information, please contact openlearning@dal.ca.
Do you have prior learning or experience relevant to this certificate?
It may be possible to receive advanced standing in this certificate based on your prior learning from work or life experience. We provide two types of recognition of prior learning:
- Prior Certified Learning: Assessment of prior coursework or training through a provider, that is neither a university or college, for the purpose of advanced standing. Examples of certified learning may include military courses, accredited certificates, workplace training programs, etc.
- Prior Experiential Learning: Assessment of previous work and life learning that may be equivalent to learning outcomes of university courses / programs, for the purpose of advanced standing. Relevant prior learning may come from work or volunteer experience, participation on committees or boards, independent study, etc.
To discuss how to use your prior learning to apply for advanced standing, please contact rpl@dal.ca.