AHEMDABAD: College of Fire Technology(CFT), the country's only institute to offer degree course in the field of fire, safety and disaster management recently renamed its 3 year degree course as Bsc(Fire & Safety) after availing permission from Gujarat University.

The change of name will provide wide spectrum to students for further opportunities in the field of fire, safety and disaster management.

College of Fire Technology offers a 3 year B Sc(Fire & Safety) degree course recognised by Gujarat University. The students who have passed 12th Science with minimum 50 % marks are eligible for this course. CFT also has a 1 year ITI Firemen and Safety & Security course conducted by GCVT. CFT is the only institute in the country to get ISO 9001:2000 certification.

The students have also an opportunity to pursue further studies in Fire Technology area. For this CFT has tied up with University of Leeds, UK, where the students can get admission and obtain MSc (Fire) degree. It has also affiliation with world's leading Institution of Fire Engineers, UK and National Fire Protection Association, USA.

The campus is located at Khoda village near Sanand of Ahmedabad district. It has the largest number of students trained and educated under one roof in the country. The college has 416 students enrolled in Year 2007-08 in discipline of Fire, Safety & Security. The campus is equipped with state of the art laboratory, equipment and also has hostel and transportation facility.

The training is imparted to the students in a systematic way so as to bring out the best in a man, to transform the selected candidates into mature, balanced professional officer, capable of inspiring leadership, assuming responsibility and taking decision. Plans are afoot to introduce information technology courses and these will be implemented in a phased manner.

The students have been absorbed in various spells of applications and by the best in the industry. To give a few - GMR, GVK, Reliance, ONGC and many more. Since its inception, College of Fire technology has registered a high number of placements of its students. Recently,some of the CFT students have got placements at Mumbai International Ariport.

CFT known for its high no of placements of students in Fire and Safety area also recently awarded a contract to provide fire & safety training to Petroleum Development of Oman through Oman based Alsafa Environmental & Technical Services LLC Oman, an associate organisation of College of Fire Technology in Oman. The contract is for 7 years and CFT will provide all round training of fire & safety to PDO. The first batch of 20 personnel have already arrived to the CFT campus. This is a very prestigious contract for an Indian Institute like CFT. College faculties will impart regular training in Oman as well.

India is already poised for a great leap in all facades of growth like large infrastructures involving energy production, roads, air transport, information technology, space applications and many more to add. Every step in advancing use of high technology generates more complex problems and need of higher safety measures. Growth when associated with speed generates large looming areas of hazards, and when the safety boundaries' are narrowed down to achieve this, the need of protection becomes large.

This necessitates availability of large number of trained and dedicated Fire and Safety personals at all levels. As is the case with every growing sector, the sector of Fire & safety also has a shortage of skilled personnel.