Contact West Midlands Fire Service

The Equality Act 2010 permits employers to take positive action measures to improve equality for people who share a protected characteristic. Section 158 of the Act enables us to take proportionate action to reduce disadvantage or increase participation of a particular group who are underrepresented in the workforce.

We are committed to having a workforce that reflects the diversity of our communities to give us the widest spectrum of ideas, backgrounds, cultures and skills.

Our service is currently underrepresented by:

• Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people
• people with disabilities
• lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people
• women (in firefighting roles)

Examples of the types of positive action activity we carry out include targeted advertising, ‘meet and greet’ sessions, recruitment programmes and female fitness sessions.

Positive action does not include giving someone a job based on their protected characteristic. This is unlawful.

An initial trainee firefighters course lasts 12 weeks, you will be paid throughout this training.

During this time, you will be working Monday to Friday at a variety of locations across the West Midlands.

Following the successful completion of these 12 weeks you will be assigned a station and watch who will support you in the rest of your training.

This will involve assessments in a variety of subjects and can take up to 3 years.

We operate a continuous rolling recruitment programme, running four trainee firefighter courses a year. Our aim is to recruit around 80 new firefighters annually to serve our communities.

It can take up to 12 weeks from you initially registering online to being sent the first tests.

From this point, it takes around 9-12 months to complete the process and be placed on a course.

The treadmill will be set at 6.2km/h (3.8mph) throughout the test. The test will begin with 0% gradient for 2 minutes. The gradient will then be increased by 3% every 2 minutes.

The test takes 12 minutes to complete.