The California Department of Fire and Forestry Protection (CalFIRE) is interested in moving its training and professional certification system for firefighters and other personnel into a cloud-based solution.
CalFIRE acknowledges there are "significant deficiencies" in the current system, according to a proposed Statement of Work issued earlier this month.
Training practices within CalFIRE have been under public scrutiny after revelations of alleged cheating by instructors and cadets at a training academy east of Sacramento. More than a dozen employees eventually were fired.
To modernize the Firefighter Education and Training Management System, the State Fire Training Unit is interested in a subscription-based cloud solution that would incorporate a business office solution with records management and classroom management solutions, according to public documents. The project would replace the existing Class and Certification Data System (CaCDS) and implement a new data warehouse.
The current application is at end-of-life and uses a FoxPro data and application engine that Microsoft no longer supports, CalFIRE says. The system supports 50 academies and 4,300 instructors, and has issued approximately 125,000 certifications, according to the department.