SES Volunteer Training
SES volunteers are trained to respond to and counter the effects of natural and man-made emergencies and incidents to ensure the community of Western Australia is safe.
To allow these operational activities to be responded to effectively and safely the SES has a responsibility to ensure adequate and appropriate training is available to its members.
This training provides SES members with the appropriate skills & knowledge to enable them to perform their operational tasks and functions safely and effectively.
Every Volunteer who joins the SES receives initial basic training. Continuation training is then based on their individual preferences and capabilities, and the operational and functional roles of their SES Unit.
Every Volunteer who joins the SES receives initial basic training. Continuation training is then based on their individual preferences and capabilities, and the operational and functional roles of their SES Unit.
Training can include:
- storm damage operations such as removing fallen trees from houses, tarping damaged roofs, and propping structurally damaged homes.
- propping and securing homes damaged through other causes such as car accidents.
- assisting the police with searches for missing persons or objects of interest
- providing logistical support to other agencies; for example, transporting bushfire fighters and reloading water bombers.
Each SES unit is responsible for a given area and are often called upon to assist neighbouring SES units. Trained SES Volunteers may also be called upon to help with disaster response anywhere in Australia.
To provide these services, SES volunteers undertake extensive training usually on a weekly. Weekly training nights usually involve informal training to reinforce knowledge, skills, and teamwork. Formal training courses also run throughout the year, usually on weekends.
Courses include:
- Urban search and rescue
- Storm damage operations
- Vertical Rescue
- Flood Boat operations
- Chainsaw operations
- Land Search techniques
- Air search
- First aid
- Map reading and navigation
- Radio Communications
For more details, visit Courses and Qualifications
NEW Online Training Resource Library
Just scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Training Resources
Training for SES Volunteers has special importance, both as an operational role requirement to motivate volunteers and maintain skills.
A planned and well-prepared training program not only facilitates competency strengthening but also contributes to motivating volunteers by helping them to achieve and maintain satisfaction in their roles.
The competency and commitment of SES volunteers are pivotal to meeting operation requirements to assist the community. An SES Volunteer who is competent in their role – well-trained – will have more reason to continue volunteering than one who is not confident and under stress, because they lack competence.
Training Resource Library
This is the first step in building a comprehensive library of training resources to help SES units improve their training methods.
At the moment the library contains a number of team building resources, but with your help, it can grow to include many other types of training resources.
Share your training knowledge
The SESVA provides this facility for unit training teams to share their training knowledge, experiences and programs with other units and volunteers.
Please take the time to send your training material to sesva.secretary@ses-wa.asn.au and it will be posted in this section.
Search Instructions
You can use the filter below to find resources that suit your team building needs, simply by indicating your preferred options.
By default, all resources are shown.
As you pick each option, the list below will refresh, showing the available resources that match all the selected options.
The numbers after the options indicate how many resources will be listed if you pick that option.
