Mission

PEMA's mission is to train state, county, and municipal public safety personnel and to increase public awareness of hazards in the commonwealth by providing quality classes, seminars and exercises.

PEMA Courses

PEMA offers a wide variety of courses tailored to fit the ever-expanding role of public safety.  Course offerings range from the professional development series to radiological to terrorism.  There are a number of new courses including the following:  Basic Public Information, Debris Management, Scene Preservation, as well as new levels of incident command courses.  A course announcement for each course will be sent to every county emergency management office and state agency 60 days prior to the course.  It will provide greater detail on the course content and the amenities provided.  Changes, as well as original course information, will also be listed on the PEMA website.

Prerequisites

If a course requires a prerequisites, a copy of the certificates of the prerequisite courses must be attached to the student's course application.  If registration is done on-line, please send a copy of the prerequisite certificate to the State Training Officer in advance of the class start date.  Applications for courses requiring prerequisites will NOT be accepted without prerequisite proof.

No-Shows

Space in most of our classes is limited which requires waiting lists of applicants to be formed.  For this reason, we have a strict "no-show" policy. 

Students who have been accepted for a class and then fail to attend without notification to the State Training Officer or Program Manager will be considered last for acceptance into future classes for a period of six months. 

A second infraction will bar the person from all classes for six months.  Please try to notify this office within 48 hours of the class for cancellation.

Student Equipment

All students should bring note-taking materials notebook and pen/pencil with them to class.  Additional requirements for the classes will be so stated in the course announcements.

Continuing Education Units

Currently, most of the PEMA training courses have Continuing Education Units CEUs available through one or all of the following:  Indiana University of Pennsylvania IUP, Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Coroners' Association, and Pennsylvania Department of Education.  We are continuing to work with the Funeral Directors' Association and hope to have CEUs available by the end of this year.

Enrollment and Tuition Charges

Enrollment in PEMA courses is open to anyone with an interest in public safety who is over the age of 18 years.  There is no tuition charge for any of the courses.  The majority of our courses have on-line registration. 

If a class does not allow on-line registration, attendees should pre-register for each course by printing out the PEMA Course Application.  Please be sure to fill out the application completely. 

Submit your completed registration form to the appropriate county emergency management office.  Your confirmation will be handled by e-mail for most courses.