Abstract:

Natural and man-made disasters - floods, landslides, earthquakes, storm winds, hail, drought, wildfires and building fires are on the rise in the last decades worldwide. Human casualties, extensive damages to the urban areas, negative impact on the environment and further weakening of the regional economy are amongst indicators of increasing vulnerability. Preliminary surveys, done by project partners in the project preparation phase, have shown that a shortage of skills exists. Knowledge and skills of the existing staff in this area (state administration, public institutions and companies) are based on the education acquired from other engineering disciplines. They have been noticed very different levels of knowledge and skills, with many people learning on the job in an unstructured way. These competencies, knowledge and skills are insufficient to solve the growing problems in the field of Disaster Risk Management and Fire Safety Engineering (DRM&FSE). Moreover, the lack of safety culture in society, in general, is notable.

The overall broader objective of the K-FORCE project contributed to building a sustainable educational foundation in the DRM&FSE field and ensuring national professional resources and regional capacity for a resilient society. Acquired knowledge in the field of Disaster Risk Management and Fire Safety Engineering will provide the base for building a resilient society.
In the context of this article, we want to highlight the outputs of the project namely contribution to building a sustainable educational foundation in the DRM&FSE field and ensuring national professional resources and regional capacity for a resilient society. The K-FORCE project has been solved by the K-FORCE Consortium, consisting of 12 members: the members from programme countries of EU, the members from partner countries and members from associated countries. The lead partner was the University of Novi Sad.

Keywords:

Education and training, LLL courses for professionals, knowledge in the field of Disaster Risk Management and Fire Safety Engineering.