In recent years, there has been an increase in the need for a systematic education sytem that trains disaster relief experts who engage in working on the spot and information sharing. To accommodate this need, Kyungil University (President Chung, Hyun-Tae) was selected as the only training institute of professional manpower for disaster relief in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk area by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. The Ministry has established some related legislation and designated by some specialized educational institutions in the field of relief expert training throughout the country in order to provide disaster relief.

KIU won this project by organizing a consortium, from the Department of Emergency Medical Technology, Department of Fire Safety, and Department of Psychotherapy. KIU is going to set up the training center for disaster relief experts with 8 related department professors and 2 incumbent firefighters, and train experts dividing 3 courses, such as: ‘basic course’, ‘specialized course’, and ‘refresher training course’. The education will be provided to the civil servants in charge of disaster relief work, the volunteers and volunteer organizations, and the directors of the disaster relief-related organizations for 8 hours a day during the university vacation. Cooperating with the relevant divisions on campus like the Center for BLS-TS and the Team of Lifelong Education, they will use a variety of laboratories on campus such as the laboratory for emergency clinical skills, the general laboratory for fire-fighting apparatus, the analytical laboratory for fire investigation, the counselling office for psychological inspection, the laboratory for physical therapy, and so on.

The educational content consist of ‘emergency management’ which deals mainly with cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid, ‘disaster management’ which deals mainly with dangerous substances, firefighting facility, refuge facility, ‘disaster mental health support’ which deals mainly with self-management, safety-based therapy, and art therapy.

Kim, Young-Hwa, the dean of Department of Emergency Medical Technology said that “it is a welcome novelty to make the education compulsory through revising the related law because improving the professional ability of the person working in the field of disaster relief is directly connected to the safety of the people”. He added that “we will do our best to make true guardians of public safety of disaster relief personnel through a solid education”.

President Chung, Hyun-Tae announced that “KIU will support the training center based on the idea that KIU is the last bastion of the safety of the people”. He added that “KIU will run the best education program making use of the specialized teaching staff and its advanced laboratory.