Along with the Mayor, Ada Colau, officials attending the ceremony included the Fifth Deputy Mayor, responsible for the Area for Security and Prevention, Albert Batlle; the director of the Institute for Public Security of Catalonia, Montserrat Royes; the Manager for the Area for Security and Prevention, Maite Casado; the director of the Civil Protection, Prevention, Fire Extinction and Rescue Service, Sebastià Massagué; the head of the City Police, Pedro Velázquez, and the Manager for People and Organisational Development, Javier Pascual.
Today saw the welcome ceremony for Barcelona’s new firefighters, with diplomas awarded certifying the completion of their basic training and access to the Institute of Public Security of Catalonia. Twelve of the 79 people completing their training are women, representing the highest number in the history of the corps.
The last occasions when women were recruited were last year (two out of the 79 places) and in 2014 (one out of 80). The new intake therefore represents a significant increase.
Women’s participation was also higher in this recruitment process, accounting for 143 of the 1,838 eligible candidates (7.78%). This compares to a figure of 5.47% last year (109 women) and 3.63% in 2015 (75 women).
Of particular note is the ratio of women gaining places in relation to the number of eligible women candidates in the recruitment process. In this case, some 8.39% of women applicants obtained places. In 2018 that figure was 1.83%, compared to 0% in 2015 and 1.31% in 2014.
Profile of new women firefighters
When they started training in September, the average age of the twelve women was 33.91, almost the same as the new firemen (33.58). The ages range from 25 to 44.
While most live in the province of Barcelona, there is also a new woman firefighter from Girona, one from Lleida, one from Tarragona and another from the Balearic Islands.
Most new women firefighters (nine) have university or equivalent degrees, while the other three have higher education diplomas. The most common qualification is in Sports and Physical Activity Sciences, which five women have. The rest of recruits’ qualifications are diverse: social and healthcare studies (veterinary studies, human nutrition, dietetics and nursing), social education, audio-visual communication, statistics and a degree in primary education.
In terms of the professional area chosen, seven have opted for healthcare, three for construction and civil works and two for electrical installations.
Changes to entry exams
Special emphasis was placed on the gender perspective for this edition, with some changes made to access requisites. The main changes included the assessment scale for physical tests and the elimination of height as a disqualifying factor. Specialist qualifications in the field of healthcare also scored merit.
The main changes were:
- Elimination of minimum and maximum height as access requisites.
- Changes to the assessment scale for physical tests such as the throwing circuit, the agility circuit and the swimming test.
- Elimination of bench press and horizontal jump tests.
- Healthcare-related test in the professional test section.
- Medical test evaluating both physical and psychological conditions.
- Qualifications and specialisation in the healthcare field score as merits.
- In the training stage, more material relating to healthcare was included, with questions relating to care of multiple victims or external defibrillation with machines.