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Student Eligibility Requirements

You may take courses offered by the National Fire Academy (NFA) if you have substantial involvement in fire prevention and control, emergency medical services, fire-related emergency management activities or aligned professions. In most cases, you can't take the same course more than once.

Selection criteria

You must meet the selection criteria for each course. Selection is also based on:

  • The impact you will have on fire protection and safety when you return to your local community.
  • The relevance of the skills you will learn in the course to your current work and your potential to apply them.
  • A student population representative of the total fire service.

Prerequisites

On-campus students

On-campus students must complete Incident Command System (ICS)-100-level and ICS-200-level training before applying for a course. We prefer that you complete ICS-100: An Introduction to the Incident Command System (Q0462) and ICS-200: Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response (Q0463) through NFA Online. The NFA course Incident Command System and Resource Management for the Fire Service (F/W 0376) also meets the ICS-100 and ICS-200 requirement.

We will also accept other National Incident Management System compliant equivalent training as provided by state and federal agencies.

Other prerequisites

Some courses have additional prerequisites that you must meet before you can take them. Check the Course Detail page of the NFA catalog for eligibility information on courses of interest.

Your fire chief's signature on your course application attests that you have completed required prerequisite training.

Non-discrimination in admission decisions

The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) is an equal opportunity institution. It does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, color, religious belief, national origin or disability in its admissions and student-related policies and procedures. The USFA makes every effort to assure equitable representation of minorities and women in its student body. Qualified minority and female candidates are encouraged to apply for all courses. A very limited number of opportunities are available for non-U.S. citizens to attend NFA courses.