Mr Albert Brown-Gaizie, Acting Chief Fire Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), on Wednesday stressed the need for fire personnel to be equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills for effective and efficient operations.
"Promotion at work must come with responsibility, skills, knowledge and competence to be able to face the challenges of life," he said, at the opening of a workshop in Managerial Leadership Skills for the Regional Commanders of the GNFS in Accra.
About 30 participants are attending the workshop aimed at building the capacity of officers and upgrading their knowledge in fire fighting.
He urged the participants to be focused since sharing knowledge would enable them to learn from each other.
Mr Brown-Gaizie said experience was the avoidance of repetition of mistakes and reminded the participants to learn from their mistakes for
progress.
He said it was the hope of management that by the end of 2011, every fire officer in the country would undergo some level of managerial and leadership course to move the service to a higher level.
Mr Brown-Gaizie said in 2009, the Fire Service responded to a total of 2,708 fire outbreaks and attended to 409 rescue operations in Road Traffic Accidents (RTA).
"Statistics for January to May 2010 indicate that the Ghana National Fire Service has attended to a total of 1,359 fire outbreaks with cost of
damage estimated at GH¢7,912,402.
"The number of RTA cases attended to stood at 170 with 506 people injured and 57 fatalities."
Mrs Eva Obenewa Tandoh, Course Co-ordinator, said the two-week intensive training would focus on change management, effective communication, motivation, stress management, productivity improvement and problem solving and decision-making.
She said the training would help reshape participants in handling managerial functions to befit the status of leadership.
Mr Osei Andoh, Deputy Director of Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) in charge of the training, said the institute
focuses on three key areas - knowledge, skills and attitudinal change.
He said the MDPI trained people to promote increased productivity in both public and private organisations, primarily in Ghana, to enable them to contribute to the growth of the economy on sustainable basis.