West Midlands Fire Service to take on 60 new recruits
Sixty firefighters are being recruited by West Midlands Fire Service with bosses braced for an avalanche of applications.
More than 3,600 people applied for 50 firefighter jobs when the service last recruited in January 2015.
But this time round, the jobs will be given only to candidates living in the West Midlands area in a bid to boost the local economy. In previous recruitment drives, applications have come from across the globe.
Fire service jobs in the UK have long been hotly contested. A service boss revealed that CVs have been received this week alone from Romania and Afghanistan but would not be considered.
The jobs are largely replacements for firefighters who have recently retired or are coming up to retirement age.
Funding
Before last year's recruitment drive, the service had lost 275 firefighters in the previous four years as a result of £22 million cuts in government funding.
Tristan Dugdale- Pointin, quality and diversity advisor to West Midlands Fire Service, said: "It is really good to be recruiting again and our staff are looking forward to working with the successful applicants. We are expecting many thousands of people to apply."
Applications for the 60 posts open on October 3.
Candidates must be at least 17-and-a-half at the time they apply and will have two weeks to sign up.
For the first time applicants should have at least GCSE grade C, or its equivalent, in Maths and English and live within the West Midlands Fire Service area.
New recruits will be deployed at stations across the West Midlands.
For more details about recruitment, contact the diversity, inclusion, cohesion and equality team at DICE@wmfs.net, or call 0121 380 6239.
