QUESTION
Why is only Parks Department certification accepted for lifeguard hiring, and is it possible to consider other certifications?
0:55:14
·
86 sec
Council Member Shekar Krishnan questions the Parks Department's exclusive use of its own certification for hiring lifeguards and suggests exploring other certifications to expand the pool of candidates.
- The Parks Department adheres to its own standards, established over many years, for lifeguard certification.
- Council Member Krishnan highlights the presence of other organizations with quality instruction and certifications.
- Krishnan proposes considering other training standards to increase the number of qualified lifeguards.
- Commissioner Sue Donoghue notes that any changes to the training curriculum would require collective bargaining.
Shekar Krishnan
0:55:14
Now this with all the the data you provided about the test itself, it seems like this is a Parks certification, a Parks training.
0:55:22
Why is it that only Parks certification can be used to higher lifeguards.
Iris Rodriguez-Rosa
0:55:31
Every provider, every provider has their own standards by which they allow to for it to be completed.
0:55:37
So these are the standards that have been in in in place for many, many years here of of this particular lifeguard school.
Shekar Krishnan
0:55:45
Because there are other organizations around the city, some organizations that have their own certification standards, Their quality of instruction is just as good.
0:55:54
They train so many New Yorkers.
0:55:57
It seems to me that if we're all to be thinking about ways and everyone at the table should really have a role in rethinking things in that you're doing all you can, you're paying more, you're advertising aggressively everywhere.
0:56:12
And if we're looking at are we taking every measure we can to really expand the way that we can attract and hire lifeguard cards.
0:56:19
My question is why aren't we looking at other training standards and certifications that other organizations in this city use and expanding the different line tests so that we can expand the pool of lifeguards available.
Sue Donoghue
0:56:32
Thank you for the question, and we appreciate it.
0:56:35
Any changes to the existing collect curriculum would need to go through collective bargaining.