Vipond Recruitment and Workforce Development

Vipond has implemented customized recruitment initiatives to identify, recruit, and train qualified candidates for life safety roles within the company. In particular, the industry faces a shortage of qualified fire alarm technicians. Vipond's strategy is to partner with fire and life safety training colleges, in particular Durham College. Vipond personnel serve on their curriculum development committee to assist in ensuring that the course of study provides the best possible grounding in the life safety industry to enable graduates to be successful when they join the workforce. Vipond also presents talks in the classroom and at career days to give students exposure to industry personnel and the opportunity to ask questions as to what a career in fire protection is really like.

Vipond also assisted Durham College in the development of their training lab to enable students to gain œhands on experience on life safety systems. Vipond has established an internship program with Durham which rotates students through various life safety job functions including inspections, new construction, design, and security. These students include those from diverse backgrounds including an ever-increasing, and welcome, female contingent, as well as mature students changing careers. 

Vipond presents a number of œopen houses with training colleges such as Durham and Humber to provide students exposure to our workplace and an opportunity to interact with those doing roles they may be interested in as a career.

Vipond has also developed and implemented an extensive in-house fire alarm technician development program which includes œBoot Camps targeted to newer hires and an Apprenticeship Program. Their philosophy is to invest in the people and work together to offer not just a job, but a career in the life safety industry. Vipond's Boot Camp includes an introduction to all facets of technician work including: proper inspection practices and reporting (including battery testing), codes and standards, fire alarm equipment components, basic programming, special hazards, and troubleshooting. These sessions are recorded and available on our Learning Management System (LMS), and complement other training courses on safety, leadership, and many other topics. Like most organizations, Vipond pivoted to virtual sessions this year which enables access for all the people in Branches across Canada.

Vipond's Fire Alarm Apprenticeship program comprises five levels: two apprenticeship levels which provide an opportunity for a junior technician to be exposed to a wide variety of field work and to be mentored by a more senior technician. During this training, the technician will register with the Canadian Fire Alarm Association (CFAA) with the objective to obtain their CFAA registration by the end of level 2. The three full technician levels offer increasing levels of responsibility and opportunities to obtain more specialized skill sets in areas such as programming or special hazards, for example. In addition, a technician will work with more junior members of the team to share their knowledge, further strengthening Vipond's Team. As mentioned previously, the ultimate goal is to offer a career path with Vipond which will result in enhanced employee engagement which ultimately results in superior  service to the customers.

Vipond Inc. is considered to be leaders in the life safety industry, and as such, staff participate in industry associations such as the Canadian Automatic Sprinkler Association (CASA) and the Canadian Fire Alarm Association (CFAA). Their involvement includes Board leadership at the National and Chapter levels, including currently serving as President of the CFAA and Chair of the CASA Board.

Tags: