 Welcome to part four of a four-part series focusing on the CFA Recruit course. Recruits are from many different backgrounds, including current CFA volunteers and come from all over the state of Victoria. Operations Officer Chris Bingham, along with some instructors and recruits from the CFA Recruit course, will take you through what happens in the 18-week course. A successful recruit is a person that can enjoy the experience of the Recruit course. Can master that work-life balance so that they can keep the requirements of the Recruit course up but they can also keep up the requirements of looking after their family at home. When we get towards the more intense component of the course, which is at the end of the course, they're the people that can enjoy and reward themselves for the experience that they've had and the skills that they've learnt and understand the actual journey that they've been on and what they've actually achieved. What makes a successful recruit is a recruit that's able to adapt to their environment. Crews that are able to think outside of the square, crews that have got excellent physical ability and crews that are able to work in a team, that's probably one of the biggest ones. Determination, the willing to learn, the willing to take instruction, certainly goes a long way. If you're there prepared to listen, put in the hard time, you will make a successful recruit. Teamwork is important on a CFA recruit course because not one recruit will get through the course alone. They need all the team around them working together, whether it's a small group of teams like you might see behind us with crews of five working here on the fire or the squad on a whole, all 30 of them in this particular case with 30 recruits. So we need that teamwork so that everyone can graduate at the end of the course. We start as a squad and we finish as a squad and you definitely need to rely on your teammates. Not only for knowledge, but just for encouragement and also based on each person's skill sets, they can all bring something to the table. So we learn off each other as much as we learn off the instructors. Mixing with people from different backgrounds and all that sort of thing has been really interesting. It's good to have different points of view and I've really enjoyed that aspect of it. The recruits are from a whole multitude of different backgrounds, from different skill sets, from different employment or occupations. When we talk to the recruits on day one, when they first start, we talk to them about that those skills and those experiences they have are actually an additional benefit to them for the recruit course because they can draw on them and apply them through the recruit course and in learning their new firefighting skills. A lot of people already have commensurate skills that a firefighter requires. So really what we're doing is taking those existing skills and just modifying them in application in responding to emergencies. When the recruits start coming in and discussing with the recruiting team and have public information sessions, they're very much aware that CFA is a state organisation and so our fire stations or our locations integrated brigades are located right around the state. Everywhere, if you can draw across everywhere, from Mildura down to Tarelgan and from Wadonga down to Warnable. So there's 33 stations contained right around the state and so recruits are graduated to the majority of all those integrated brigades. I will be stationed at Cario and I am actually really excited about it because I've heard so many good stories about it. I went and saw them a few weeks ago. It looks dynamic, it looks interesting. They do quite a few jobs. They have a lot of different appliances. So I'm very eager to, it's stuck into using all the different equipment there. The biggest change that we see is them being able to work as a team together, bonding. Seeing them from day one how separate they are to coming to the end of the course and how close they are together, how they work well together, the mateship, the camaraderie amongst them is probably some of the biggest changes that we see. It's been good to watch them turn basically from civilians into firefighters from day one from an instructor's side. It's good that we've given them the tools and the skills to go out there and become level one firefighters on a fire station and where they can further develop themselves. Proud to see how far they've come once you get to that end stage and seeing where they were at the beginning, some of them never having a firefighting background whatsoever before to coming out as a professional firefighter. I think there's a lot of opportunity and I can see that so I've started that you really, you could probably take this anywhere. So it's up to you. You do have to be determined. You have to have a plan. You have to have a few schedules in place to get yourself physically fit. I think if you've got that you need support too from family. You've got all that. It's fantastic. I think the career opportunities are limitless. For future recruits I'd have to say don't give up, keep trying. It's hard work. It's a lot of hard work but it's absolutely worth it in the end. Go for it. This is a fantastic job. It's one of the most challenging and enjoyable things I've ever done and one of the most fulfilling. I think you'll get so much out of it as I have and I can't wait to get out there on station and utilize what I've learned here. But if you're thinking of doing it just do it. It's a fantastic career that you'll choose.