CERT Basic Training

San Mateo Highland's CERT training is conducted once each year at SMCFD Station 17 and is free of cost to participants.

Training is a total of 20 hours over 6 weeks. Classes are once per week for 4 hours each day; the final week is a practice exercise to demonstrate what participants have learned. Upon completion of all 20 hours, a certificate is provided to each participant. If participants miss a class, they can make it up either at the next training or in another city's CERT training. The class size is 15-20 students. A professional firefighter or trained CERT member leads this training and is assisted by other community CERT volunteers.

The sessions are designed to make participants comfortable. They include plenty of relaxed class interaction and small team exercises. No tests! However, several breaks with cookies and coffee help make up for that missing feature. Most participants attend all six training sessions because they are interesting and fun as well as very useful.