CAL-JAC Conference 2023: Forty Years of Creating Excellence
Nearly 400 fire service professionals – labor and management – came together in Palm Springs as the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee (Cal-JAC) held their 16th Biennial Conference.
The three-day conference brought together labor and management partners in Cal-JAC for an update on the program’s groundbreaking training and recruitment initiatives. Participants also took part in training workshops focused on professional development and critical fire service issues.
The 2023 Conference marked Cal-JAC’s 40th anniversary. The unique public sector apprenticeship program launched in 1982, and has grown to become the largest apprenticeship program – public or private – in the nation.
“Cal-JAC’s vision and innovation over the past four decades has improved our profession and built a foundation of trust and collaboration between labor and management,” said Cal-JAC Chair Daniel A. Terry, who co-founded the program.
Cal-JAC is co-sponsored by California Professional Firefighters, on the labor side, and the California Office of the State Fire Marshal on the management side. CPF President Brian K. Rice and Acting State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant praised Cal-JAC as an indispensable tool for building a better trained and more diverse profession.
It is a tradition at the Cal-JAC Conference to highlight a fire department and local union that work together to ensure that our first responders get the training and education they need to do their job well – exemplifying a true partnership of success. This year, the Cal-JAC would like to acknowledge San Francisco Fire Department and San Francisco Firefighters, Local #798, whose cooperative effort is a role model for the entire fire service.
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WATCH: Video presentations on Cal-JAC’s groundbreaking firefighter recruitment, paramedic and EMS training academies and 40 years of creating excellence can be found HERE on the Cal-JAC YouTube page.
BACKGROUND MATERIALS:
View resources from Keynote Speaker Amberly Lago HERE.
View Marcey Brightwell's Crisis Communications Plan Template HERE.
View the DE&I Recruitment Workshop Presentation Slides HERE.
