FutureForward students take the next step with CPAT

February is the month to celebrate Career and Technical Education, and we are proud to have several students in our Firefighting and EMT courses take the next step in their education by taking the Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT). The (CPAT) consists of eight critical physical tasks that simulate actual job duties. This test is physically demanding and requires that you be physically fit to be successful.

Here is what one of our students who attends FutureForward at Washington Square had to say about his experience:

My name is Tyson Johnson, I'm currently in the Firefighting and EMT courses at Washington Square and I, along with all of the second-year fire students, was given the opportunity to take the Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT) and its training courses.

The experience itself was great as we were able to test our own physical abilities to see if we were on par with the minimum requirements needed to become a firefighter. A CPAT certification is required for becoming a firefighter because it simulates real-life firefighting skills and passing this test without any experience is incredibly difficult. Thankfully, we'd been practicing and preparing for this test every week, as every Wednesday we do physical training (PT) geared towards helping ourselves prepare to pass the CPAT. But overall I think that this was a necessary and fun experience that our whole class enjoyed and are fortunate to have.