Please read the course description in its entirety before calling to register.
Length of Course: 2 weeks (10 days, Monday through Friday) plus additional field work
Note: All participants must attend all classes during both weeks of the course to be certified as a Firearms Instructor.
Course Hours: 0800-1630, plus two evening sessions on Wednesdays which run until 2100 hours
Location: Vermont Police Academy scenario building and range
Dates:
- Entrance testing: 16 or 17 August, 2016
- Week 1: 19 - 23 September, 2016
- Week 2: 17 - 21 October, 2016
Tuition:
- Testing: Free
- Course: Commute $273/Overnight $558
Registration: To register for this class, your department head or department training officer must send an email to Training Coordinator Jason Williams at Jason.Williams@vermont.gov .
Because of a significant need for instructors by some agencies within the state, registration for the course does not guarantee a reserved seat in the course. Applicants will be notified in April of this year as to whether their seat has been reserved for testing for the 2016 course.
Application deadline is 7 April, 2016.
Prerequisites: Level III certified law enforcement officer with at least two years of consecutive Vermont law enforcement experience or, Full time certified correctional officer with at least two years of consecutive Vermont corrections experience or, Level II certified law enforcement officer with at least four years of consecutive Vermont law enforcement experience.
Note: Seating for this class will be first come, first served for Level III certified law enforcement and full time corrections personnel, except as stated above. Level II certified personnel will be placed on a standby list and will be given seating on a first come, first served basis if space is available. On the job minimum experience levels must be reached prior to the start date of the class.
Course Description: The Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council’s Use of Force Committee has enacted entrance standards that a potential instructor candidate must meet for entrance into the course. The number of persons who may sign up for the testing will be limited to 16 applicants. Once the application deadline has been reached for the test, those first 16 applicants who meet the minimum prerequisites will be required to come to the Vermont Police Academy on either the 12th or the 13th of August, 2014 to participate in the entrance testing process. The testing process will likely take all day to complete.
The applicant will be required to bring their duty belt, duty handgun, flashlight and/or weapons mounted light, protective vest regularly worn on duty, as well as 300 rounds of ball, (FMJ or TMJ) ammunition for the test date. Frangible ammunition will be provided at the academy. Applicants who successfully pass the entrance standards will have a seat reserved for them in the class. A description of the entrance test standards will be provided to those applicants who are on the test list, as well as study materials.
Those applicants who successfully pass the entrance testing will participate in two weeks of training in classroom firearms and the use of deadly force material, instructor development, range operations, coaching techniques and evaluation methods to prepare them to function as Council certified firearms instructors.
The instructor candidates will participate in practice teaching exercises, develop new and modify current firearms training programs, create lesson plans, become familiar with current liability and civil suit trends, practice range coaching techniques, and be oriented with required range forms, paperwork and firearms training documentation.
Participants must demonstrate the ability to conduct safe range activities as well as identify and correct shooting technique deficiencies of trainees, and to prepare and deliver lessons in a classroom setting. The course will culminate with instructor candidates providing range activities with new law enforcement recruits under the guidance of the firearms instructor trainers.
Homework will be required for this course and must be completed between weeks one and two of the course.
A list of items that the instructor candidate will be required to bring to the class will be provided upon successful completion of the entrance testing.