Emergency Management Programs

Emergency management certification

The FEMA Professional Development Series

Edited by Taylor Rupe, B.A. Psychology, University of Washington Seattle · B.S. Computer Science, Oregon State University

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Every other credential in emergency management asks for work experience you cannot have as a student. The FEMA Professional Development Series does not. It is 7 independent study courses, 31 hours in total by FEMA's own reckoning, open to anyone, and free. That combination makes it the first thing worth doing if you are considering this field, and the one line you can add to a CV before you have a job in it.

Emergency responders pulling on turnout gear during a timed drill on a training ground

The Seven Professional Development Series Courses

FEMA publishes a course length and a continuing education unit value for each one. Those are the figures in the table, taken from each course's own overview page rather than estimated. Note how uneven they are: Effective Communication alone is more than a quarter of the series.

The seven FEMA Professional Development Series courses with stated hours and CEUs
CourseTitleHoursCEUs
IS-120.c An Introduction to Exercises 3 0.3
IS-230.e Fundamentals of Emergency Management 6 0.6
IS-235.c Emergency Planning 5 0.5
IS-240.c Leadership and Influence 3 0.3
IS-241.c Decision Making and Problem Solving 2 0.2
IS-242.c Effective Communication 8 0.8
IS-244.b Developing and Managing Volunteers 4 0.4
Total 31 3.1

Read the titles rather than the codes and the shape of the profession shows through. Two courses are about the mechanics of the field, Fundamentals of Emergency Management and Emergency Planning. One is about exercises. The remaining four are leadership, decision making, communication and managing volunteers, which is to say management. That ratio is not an accident of curriculum design. It is what the job is.

How To Start The FEMA Professional Development Series

  1. Register for a FEMA Student Identification number. It is free, and you need it to sit the final exam for each course. The registration runs through Login.gov.
  2. Work through the courses in any order. There is no sequence requirement between them. Starting with Fundamentals of Emergency Management makes the rest read better if the field is new to you.
  3. Pass the final exam for each course. Each one carries its own, and the course record is what the portal counts.
  4. Download the certificate. FEMA states that once all 7 required courses are complete, the PDS certificate becomes available in the student portal.

What Comes After The Professional Development Series

The PDS is deliberately the bottom rung, and the ladder above it is worth seeing before you start. The Advanced Professional Series is the direct next step: ten classroom courses run through your state emergency management agency, with the PDS named among its recommended preparation. Further out sits the Certified Emergency Manager, which needs years of documented work behind it and is the credential employers use as a filter for senior posts. If your career turns toward the private sector instead, the Certified Business Continuity Professional is the equivalent gate there.

None of those are free, and all of them ask for experience. That is the argument for taking the 31 free hours while you have the time, rather than at the point when a job application depends on them.

How The Series Fits Alongside An Emergency Management Degree

A degree teaches you the field and gets you interviewed. The PDS does neither on its own, and anyone telling you it substitutes for a qualification is selling something. What it does is prove you went looking before anyone asked you to, which is a real signal for a graduate with no operational record yet.

Some programs have already absorbed it. Embry-Riddle's Worldwide homeland security degree includes the Professional Development Series certificate as part of the degree itself, and FIU builds FEMA incident command and exercise-evaluation certifications into coursework for students taking its in-person sections. Where a program does not, the courses remain free and the gap is yours to close. Compare the 87 ranked programs.

Common Questions About The FEMA Professional Development Series

What is the FEMA Professional Development Series?
Seven independent study courses from FEMA's Emergency Management Institute covering exercises, the fundamentals of the field, emergency planning, leadership, decision making, communication and volunteer management. Complete all 7 and the PDS certificate becomes available to download from the student portal. The seven together are 31 hours of stated course length and 3.1 continuing education units.
Is the FEMA Professional Development Series free?
Yes. FEMA describes the Independent Study Program as offered free of charge to the American public, and open to all. You need a FEMA Student Identification number to sit the final exams, and registering for one costs nothing either. There is no application, no membership and no renewal fee.
How long does the PDS take to complete?
FEMA states a course length for each one, and the seven add up to 31 hours. Effective Communication is the longest at 8 hours and Decision Making and Problem Solving the shortest at 2. There is no cohort and no deadline, so the real answer is however many evenings you give it. A student taking one course a week finishes inside two months.
Do you need experience to take the Professional Development Series?
No. FEMA describes IS-230.e, the fundamentals course at the center of the series, as an entry-level course for individuals new to the field of emergency management or people who want to understand its fundamentals. That is what makes the PDS unusual here: every other credential in this field asks for documented work experience you cannot have as an undergraduate.
Does the PDS count toward CEM certification?
IAEM sets its own training-hour categories for the Certified Emergency Manager and decides what evidence it accepts, so check the PDS against IAEM's requirements before counting on it. What is certain is that the courses are accredited for continuing education units in line with IACET standards, and that they cost nothing, which makes them a cheap place to start building a training record.
Is the PDS worth doing while still at university?
It is the one credential in this field you can finish before you graduate, so yes. Several programs already know this: Embry-Riddle's Worldwide homeland security degree includes the Professional Development Series certificate as part of the degree. If yours does not, the courses are still free and nothing stops you taking them alongside the 87 ranked bachelor's programs we hold.

Sources On The FEMA Professional Development Series

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