Recruitment

An initial trainee firefighters course lasts 12 weeks, you will be paid throughout this training.

During this time, you will be working Monday to Friday at a variety of locations across the West Midlands.

Following the successful completion of these 12 weeks you will be assigned a station and watch who will support you in the rest of your training.

This will involve assessments in a variety of subjects and can take up to 3 years.

We operate a continuous rolling recruitment programme, running four trainee firefighter courses a year. Our aim is to recruit around 80 new firefighters annually to serve our communities.

It can take up to 12 weeks from you initially registering online to being sent the first tests.

From this point, it takes around 9-12 months to complete the process and be placed on a course.

The treadmill will be set at 6.2km/h (3.8mph) throughout the test. The test will begin with 0% gradient for 2 minutes. The gradient will then be increased by 3% every 2 minutes.

The test takes 12 minutes to complete.

Firefighters need to have a good level of strength and cardiovascular fitness, as well as a good level of stamina and flexibility to effectively carry out their roles safely.

All our practical selection tests can be on viewed our website on the Firefighter Selection Process page. Here, you can see what’s required and work to improve your fitness, if you need to. These tests are designed to test all areas of your fitness, and you must be able to pass all of the tests to enable you to fulfil the role of a firefighter.

Maintaining your fitness throughout your career as a firefighter is important, and the service will support you in doing this, while employed with us.

A fitness test is carried out as part of your medical to determine if your aerobic fitness meets our standards of 42 V02 max. The test that we use to test this is the Chester Treadmill test.

All applicants must be eligible to live and work in the UK with no restrictions.

Applicants need to be 18 or over at the time they apply. There is no upper age limit.

Unfortunately no. Firefighters cannot have a beard due to the need to be able to get a face seal when wearing breathing apparatus, with our current equipment.

Ideally yes, although having one is not essential at the point of application.

You should be aware, however, that part of a firefighter’s role is to drive. So there is an expectation that you will obtain a driving licence and eventually become an emergency response driver.

You will be given full support and training to enable this.

While we encourage our staff to explore the different elements of their career as a firefighter, there is no requirement for a firefighter train, or work, in specialist teams, such as our technical rescue (which covers water rescue, rope rescue, confined space and height rescue) or other areas such as our Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) or International Search and Rescue (ISAR) teams.

Once a prospective candidate has been competent in the role of a firefighter for the necessary time, they’ll have the opportunity to apply for roles in specialist areas, as and when they become available, if they wish.