Q: Where are your classes held?

A: We hold our classes in cities wherever our customers need us to. We predominantly schedule courses in North Carolina around the Charlotte, Goldsboro, and Raleigh areas, however we can conduct a class anywhere in the U.S. with enough prep time. If you have two or more people that are interested in our courses and you would like us to consider holding a course in your city, give us a call or contact us using our contact form, and we will do our best to make that happen.

 

Q: How long has your company been conducting fire alarm training?

A: The company (as an entity) has been in operation since February 2017. Continuum’s owner and lead instructor, Shawn Lee, has been instructing fire alarm technicians since 1997. Between 1997 and 2016 when he retired from almost 27 years of military service, he’s done inspection and testing of fire alarms, installed fire alarms, been a military electrical instructor, an Inspector General team member, and performed fire alarm system design. When he retired from active duty service in late 2016, he decided to start Continuum Fire Protection Training so he could continue to be involved with the fire alarm industry doing something he loved. Even while in the military, Shawn taught an average of two classes per year to his military electricians to make sure they remained up-to-date on fire alarm requirements.

 

Q: How do I sign up for the courses you have on your website?

A: As you read through our course descriptions, you will see a “Register” button as you scroll towards the end of the web page. Click that button and you will be taken to a registration form. Fill it out and you’ll be tentatively added to our class roster for that class. Make sure to choose the date and location using the drop-down list on the registration form. Fill in all the information required and click the “Register” button. Shortly after you register, you will receive an automated email letting you know we have your registration information. You will also be redirected to a web page to complete the payment for the course.

 

Q: What are my payment options?

A: You may pay online using one of our payment buttons. We currently use PayPal and Stripe. The choice of which one to use is up to you. There is also an option to pay by check or money order. For check payments, you will have to make sure to send the check in enough time for it to be deposited into our account. We will not be able to accept you into the class until the check clears.

 

You have a choice of using PayPal or Stripe if you would like to use a credit or debit card. For customers who are using the federal government Government Purchase Card (GPC) or anyone who may not be permitted to use payment processors such as PayPal or Stripe, please contact us prior to attempting to pay for any of our courses.

 

Our website is a secured website. We take your security and privacy very seriously. If you are uncomfortable with using our website to conduct the transaction, we can also send you a secure invoice directly to an email address of your choosing.

 

We also accept check or money order. Just contact us and let us know you’d like to pay by check or money order. We will provide you with instructions for your payment. At this time we do not accept cash payments.

 

Q: Can your courses be used to help me prepare for the NICET fire alarm certification exams?

A: Our courses are not specifically developed for exam preparation, but yes, our courses can help you to prepare for the exam. The NICET exams do not only focus on the NFPA codes and standards. The exams also test you on general fire alarm knowledge that is not found in the codes and standards. You must also know how the systems operate, what the circuits can do, and how to troubleshoot them. Our courses can teach you those things.

 

Q: Are your courses pass/fail?

A: Our live training courses are not pass/fail. While you make take an end of day quiz to give you (and us) an idea of how well you grasp the knowledge, you will not fail the course if you do not do well on the quiz. However, we reserve the right to not issue a course certificate to anyone who refuses to participate, is disruptive, or spends more time outside the class than inside the class.

 

Q: After I complete one of your courses, how soon can I expect to receive my course certificate?

A: We will send your course certificate to you by email within seven days after completing our live training courses. Our goal is to have it to you within 24 hours after the course ends, however there may be times when we will not be able to meet our 24-hour goal.

 

Q: Do I need to bring a copy of the NFPA 70 and/or NFPA 72 to class with me?

A: If you prefer to use your copy, you may bring it with you, but you do not have to. We supply copies for use in the class. We ask that you do not write in our copies or damage them as they are used for multiple classes. Depending upon the course being taught, we may be utilizing a different edition of the codes than you have so there may be a few differences between what your standards has compared to what we may discuss in the class.

 

Q: Why should we attend your courses?

A: Great question. Our courses are designed for anyone who desires to learn more about fire alarm systems…what they do, how they do it, how to troubleshoot them, why the systems must be installed the way they are, etc. Continuum Fire Protection Training’s courses can be used to learn new skills/knowledge or add to your existing fire alarm knowledge. If you have a new hire who could benefit from our courses, send them too. Our mission is to train anyone who wants to work with these critical systems. We want everyone to know all they can about fire alarm systems.

 

Q: What do you mean by “hands-on” fire alarm training?

A: Our courses provide you with the opportunity to work with fire alarm system trainers and complete comprehensive exercises that will enhance your knowledge. Depending upon the course you attend, you will install circuits, troubleshoot circuits, and/or perform system layout and calculations. If you attend our Fire Alarm Systems course, you will do all of that. So, when we say we provide quality hands-on fire alarm training, we mean it.

 

Q: I heard fire alarm system layout and calculations has a lot of math in it. I don’t like math! Do I have to do the math portion?

A: Yes, you must do the math portion. But don’t worry. We break it down into easy to use bits so that it will make sense. The vast majority of math we use is simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We may have to do a little bit of geometry, but even that little bit is easy. It will just be enough so that you know how and why some things work out the way they do.  Also, we provide a few worksheets that help you do the calculations so that you don’t have to memorize anything. Just follow the instructions on the worksheet and you’ll be okay.

 

Q: I have little to no experience with fire alarm systems, but want to learn. Can I attend your courses or are they only for experienced technicians?

A: Yes, of course! Our courses are for anyone to attend. As long as you understand electrical theory, we would love to have you at our courses (as much as you can understand electricity anyway, because let’s face it…sometimes electricity works like magic). We would suggest not attending a code/standard course from us or any other company until you’ve attended a class that teaches you about the systems first. That way the code requirements should make a whole lot more sense. We go out of our way to make sure that when you finish one of our courses you understand the material and how it applies to fire alarm systems. So, if you have folks who are just beginning their careers in fire alarm systems, we can help them…and more importantly, we want to help them.

 

Q: What do you mean by customized training?

A: There are a couple of different meanings. First, if you would like us to come to your location to instruct two or more of your technicians we will try to make that happen. Depending upon what facilities your company can make available to us (classroom, projectors, etc.) we can cut costs to make it more economical for us to come to you than for you to send people to us.

Second, if it turns out you would like a mixture of our courses for your technicians, let us know and we can design a course just for your training needs. If you need something else that we currently do not offer, let us know and we will investigate if we can do it for you. Our goal is to get you the training you want and need, even if it’s a little different than what we currently offer.

 

Q: I’m interested in a customized training session. How much do you charge for developing a curriculum?

A: We do not charge any customers for coming up with a curriculum for customized training. If you ask us for a quote for customized training, we work with you to make sure you are getting what you want and then we put together a preliminary training agenda. If an agreement can be reached, we develop the course and schedule the class. The quote you will receive will be for us conducting the course at your location plus ordinary travel expenses. But you will not pay anything on the front or back end for us to develop the course.

 

Q: We only work with specific fire alarm systems. Can you offer us a training class that focuses on those specific systems and their components?

A: Unfortunately, we are not able to do that at this time. It’s not because we don’t want to, but because it may not be cost effective for you to have us supply that training for you. We do have a host of fire alarm systems we use for our hands-on courses, but we do not actively teach you how to work with just that alarm system. We concentrate on teaching you how to work on fire alarm systems in general, how to wire them, what to look for during inspection and testing, and how to troubleshoot and repair the systems. In order for us to know enough about each system out there…well let’s just say Continuum Fire Protection Training does not have enough time or money to learn about all the different systems and still have time and money to teach courses.

Another reason we don’t get that deep into the alarm systems is because unfortunately we will never know as much about a specific system as the alarm system manufacturer. In our opinion, it is best to learn the intricate details of a specific fire alarm system from the system manufacturer vs. a third-party training company such as ours. That being said, we will provide you with whatever knowledge we have on the alarm systems we use for training. If it so happens you work with the same type(s) we use, it’s a win-win. Because of the type of content we instruct our customers on, we are better suited to provide instruction that applies to almost any fire alarm system you might encounter.