Management 315, Enhanced Weapons of Mass Destruction Threat and Risk Assessment (MGT 315) is a management and planning level course of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS funds WMD training through is Grants and Training Program which has formed the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/odp/training_ndpc.htm The Consortium has several members, one of which is Texas A&M University. The California Governor's Office of Homeland Security (OHS) acts as DHS grant administrator. Dr. Cliff Cheng serves as Point of Contact, the person responsible for organizing the class and recruiting and selecting participants.
The 2-day MGT315 course is taught the Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) of the Texas A&M University. TEEX states the course goals as:
to help to prevent an attack in your jurisdiction. Enhanced Threat and Risk Assessment (ET&RA)(aka MGT 315) is designed to teach multidiscipline teams the skills necessary to conduct an enhanced vulnerability assessment in order to identify weaknesses in potential targets that could be exploited within the jurisdiction. The skills learned in this course will better prepare the jurisdiction to reduce its vulnerabilities at critical assets and prevent an attack with a WMD.
Further:
The course delivery teaches students how to do site assessments on buildings and site locations, as well as finding security vulnerabilities. We also discuss how to identify critical facilities within the jurisdiction and identify the most likely threats (terrorist, criminal gangs, natural hazards) that could cause major damage to jurisdiction infrastructure and operation.
What is new about this course is:
The present ETRA course is oriented more towards the first responders;
however, our newer delivery is expected to be rolled out in the Mar-Apr 2008 time frame. The updated version will be more specific and in line with FEMA and all the current DHS presidential directives, as well as addressing NIMS, NIPP, RAMCAP, VAT, COOP and COG The updated Enhanced Threat and Risk Assessment course (MGT 315) will have links to both the Threat and Risk Assessment course (MGT 310) and the Continuity of Operations (COOP) or Continuity of Government (COG) planning that a local jurisdiction may develop to respond to or recover from a catastrophic event. The ET&RA course supports the T&RA course through its complementary and advanced training to assist local emergency responders and stakeholders in identifying those critical infrastructure / key resource (CI/KR) sectors within the jurisdiction that may be at risk and developing mitigation strategies that can lessen the impacts to the jurisdiction. Using the all-hazards National Planning Scenarios to gauge the jurisdiction's capability to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from a significant event, the ET&RA course will enable responders to understand and identify the vulnerabilities of CI/KR within the jurisdiction. That knowledge, then, can be used by local public officials and private sector stakeholders to prioritize their mitigation efforts where they are needed most.
Scroll down (or go to www.CERTsponsor.s5.com, click MGT 315) for the full syllabus for the course.
TEEX faculty typically include retired Fire and Police Chiefs, Colonels and Captains (O-6) and other senior WMD emergency management officials. When the faculty for this course is assigned, their biographical notes will appear on the particular class' webpage on this website, i.e. 2008, MGT 315.
Graduates of the class will receive a certificate. There are no C.E.U.s available for this class. However, the prerequisites class does have C.E.U.s.
Obviously, these courses are about homeland security and paid for by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and through the administration of the California Governor's Office of Homeland Security and co-sponsored by public safety and government agencies so all applicants must be U.S. citizens and not have a criminal record. Please note, if you wish to get a certificate from this class, DHS requires you provide your social security number.
Who Should Come - The DHS grants specifies the training is for current full-time local and state government employees. At least 51% of the class must be government employees. The grants provides that only a small percentage of the class may be federal employees. However, when the local and state employees, cancel, often most of the federal employees who want to take the course can.
DHS has categorized emergency responders into 10 disciplines: Law Enforcement, Fire Suppression, Haz-Mat, EMS, Emergency Managers, Government Administrators, Public Health, Public Works, Public Safety Communications, Health Care and Haz-Mat Responders. DHS ideally would like most of it class to have a diverse representation of these 10 disciplines. Please state your discipline(s) when applying.
Jurisdictional Preference - Fairfax District - Dr. Cheng obtained the DHS grant o have MGT 315 to improve the homeland security in and around Fairfax District. Responders responsible for Fairfax District will be given preference. Private security (and their managers and executives) who guard vulnerable locations in and around Fairfax District are invited to apply, provided they met the criteria list herein. Responders in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills especially welcomed to apply.
Military - Dr. Cheng is very supportive of providing training to the federal military! However, DHS has specified the grant is to train local and state responders. National Guard are welcome to apply. Dr. Cheng will try to admit federal military after the local and state quota have been met. Federal military are invited to apply.
Private Security - Select private security personnel may apply to MGT 315. MGT 315 is an appropriate course for private security personnel who protect critical infrastructure, as defined by the FBI's Infragard program. Private security personnel are not government employees, and will be put on a standby list for admissions. In order to have a credible application, private security personnel are advised to take the highly recommended prerequisites.
To Graduates of MGT 310, WMD Threat & Risk Assessment - MGT 315, is TEEX's Enhanced WMD Threat & Risk Assessment course. MGT 310 was 3 days. MGT 315 is 2 days. MGT 310 was a more general course that most responders can take. MGT 310 taught people how to assess their facility's vulnerability to a WMD attack. MGT 315 takes vulnerability information and mitigates the threat - "target hardening." MGT 315 is more specific; for law enforcement, private security and emergency planners. MGT 315 has a class size of 40 people. MGT 315 is for 25 people and can accommodate less people. POC will look favorably on applicants who have taken MGT 310, provided they met the other criteria.
Advise to Emergency Response Volunteers - Out of all the Points of Contact, Dr. Cheng is perhaps the most supportive of volunteers such as CERTs, Red Crossers, amateur radio emergency communication operators, Coast Guard Auxilarists. Dr. Cheng has had a long history of support of these organizations. He wants to continue his help and support so long as the conditions of the DHS which pays for MGT 315 and others courses are followed. MGT 315 may not be a course that is not appropriate for most emergency response volunteers since they typically are not involved in physical security. The admissions criteria requires full time government employees; which exclude volunteers to government agencies. Some emergency response volunteers who have a qualifying professional affiliation may apply to MGT 315 under the professional qualification. However, sometimes if enough government employees cancel, credible emergency response volunteers who have taken the strongly recommended prerequisites are able to be admitted.
Emergency response volunteers are encouraged to take Awareness level courses. MGT 315 is a management and policy level course primarily for government employees. Emergency response volunteers can apply to take MGT 310 on a standby basis. For more information please see to www.CERTsponsor.s5.com, click AWR 160.
Advise to Non-Emergency Response Civilians - Civilians who do not have a qualifying professional affiliation and are not involved in volunteer emergency response might want to consider taking Awareness level courses which are open to all. For more information please see to www.CERTsponsor.s5.com, click AWR 160.
Highly Recommended Prerequisites - It is highly recommended, but not required that one take MGT 310, WMD Threat and Risk Assessment before applying to MGT 315. Taking MGT 310 enhances your MGT 315 application but does not assure admission.
While there are no formal required prerequisites for MGT 315, there is a "highly recommended "one, a terrorism awareness course. There are two ways to take a terrorism awareness course, live or on-line. We occasionally offer a free AWR 160. We usually teach it on one weeknight evening in preparation for one of our courses. WMD/Terrorism Awareness; see www.CERTsponsor.s5.com, click AWR 160.
If you prefer to take an on-line course, take AWR110 WMD/Terrorism Awareness for Emergency Responders (New). AWR110 used to be called WMD5 "Terrorism Awareness for Emergency First Responders." AWR 110 is a free on-line course which takes about an evening or two to finish. It will introduce learners to WMD terrorism.
To register for the free TEEX pre-requisite, AWR110:
1) Go to: http://teexweb.tamu.edu
2) From the top tool bar, Click on: On-line Courses
3) Scroll down to Domestic Preparedness Campus
4) Click on: Domestic Preparedness Campus
http://www.teexwmdcampus.com
5) Register as a New User.
1. Log-in,
2. Click on "Course Catalog". This should bring you to the Course Catalog search page. Here you will find the two display option "Course Catalog" and "Tree View".
- Using the "Course Catalog" view option:
- You should see a blue bar that states "Search Courses". Directly under this bar are several search criteria options.
- Departments: Open this drop down menu by clicking on the down arrow. Click on "AWR Department (AWR)"
- Course Status: Open this drop down menu by clicking on the down arrow. Click on "Open"
- Course Type: choose "WBT - Web-Based Training"
- You may leave the rest blank. Click on the "Search" button near the bottom of the page. You should now find the course listed at the bottom of the page below the "search" button. Choose the "AWR 110 WMD/Terrorism Awareness for Emergency Responders (New)". This will take you to the course.
- Using the "Tree View" option:
- Click on "Tree View". This will change the page and you should see a blue bar that states "Tree View". Directly below this bar you will see three folder icons "Departments", "[AWR] AWR Department", and "[WMD] WMD Department". Click on the "[AWR] AWR Department".
- You should now see three departments listed :
- [AWR-111] Basic EMS Concepts for WMD Incidents (Revised)
- [AWR-112] Public Works for WMD (CBRNE) Incidents: Basic Concepts
- [AWR-110] WMD/Terrorism Awareness for Emergency Responders (New)
- Click on "[AWR-110] WMD/Terrorism Awareness for Emergency Responders (New)" and you will see displayed the course "[AWR-110-005] WMD/Terrorism Awareness for Emergency Responders (New)" directly below it. Click on this and it should take you to the course
Upon successful completion of this free course, a certificate will be emailed to the participant.
Additionally, IS100, Introduction to the Incident Command System is helpful to take.
The Incident Command System (ICS) is how emergencies are managed in the U.S. All police, fire and emergency managers should have taken at least IS100 if not all 4 on line ICS courses. Supervisors should have taken IS300. Managers and executives should have taken IS400. Eventually, even volunteer responders will be required to take at least IS100. The more ICS courses one takes, the stronger the application for is.
IS100 is a free on-line course that takes about an evening to finish. After passing the quiz at the end of the course, you will be emailed a certificate for your accomplishment. Enter IS100 into a search engine and take the course. You might want to download the quiz first and take the quiz after you finish each lesson. The quiz is in the order the material is presented. Keep a copy of your answers.
Point-of-Contact (POC) - Dr. Cliff Cheng is a TEEX alumnus and serves as a Point-of-Contact (POC). As POC, Dr. Cheng has secured grant funded MGT 315 and other trainings by TEEX and other consortium members. Dr. Cheng is responsible for the recognizing the training need, selecting the training organization and course, obtaining grant funded training through OHS, selecting the class location, marketing the class. The POC is responsible for recruiting and the selecting the class; in accordance to regulations set forth by DHS and administered by OHS.
MGT 315, Enhanced WMD Threat & Risk Assessment is a homeland security course authorized and funded by a grant the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Fairfax District is where
Dr. Cliff Cheng has obtained a grant funded MGT 315 class for his beloved Fairfax District where is has lived since 1970. He is President of West of Fairfax Neighbors, been involved in the neighborhood watch since 1976, is a member of the Police Community Advisory Board (C-PAB), a graduate of the LAPD and FBI Citizen's Academies, and is the LA Emergency Management Department (volunteer) Neighborhood Preparedness Ambassador, charged with grassroots organizing community preparedness and is the LA EOC's emergency point of contact. Dr. Cheng is also management consultant involved with Continuity of Operations (COOP) and preparedness. Dr. Cheng is certified by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security to teach WMD Awareness and by the U.S. Dept. of Energy to teach Radiological and Nuclear WMD Awareness. He is certified by FEMA to teach COOP and CERT. He is a register amateur radio instructor with the American Radio Relay League and an accredited Volunteer Examiner. Dr. Cheng previously served as a Los Angeles City Commissioner and taught management at UCLA, USC and UCI.
Application Procedures - All applicants seeking admittance to Dr. Cheng's classes must directly and individually apply to Dr. Cheng. While your agency's training department and your supervisor have important roles in getting you trained, they can not speak for the POC. There are no "slots" for agencies. Applications are decided upon individually. Each individual is vetted to see if they meet DHS'criteria.
- Send an email to Dr. Cheng, CERTsponsor --at-- gmail (dot) com In the subject line write, MGT 315 Application, your name, agency.
- State your name, job title and agency and contact information.
- State previous coursework relevant to MGT 315, such as WMD/HazMat, ICS.
- State previous experience relevant to MGT 315, such as response to HazMat incidents and WMD exercises.
- Confirm that you are a U.S. citizen and do not have a criminal record. If you have a security clearance, please state so. No having a security clearance will no bar you from this class.
- State that you will provide at least 3 full business days notice, if you need to cancel.
- Tell us how you heard about the class.
If you get an provisional acceptance, it is subject to confirmation. If you do not confirm in a timely manner, we will have to fill the seat with someone else.
