When there’s a disaster, FEMA needs to have trained inspectors on site, ready to handle housing inspections for any type of disaster. That’s why training is critical.

Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) began training disaster recovery housing inspectors in 1995, under contract with FEMA.

After responding to more than 130 disasters across 41 states, Puerto Rico and Guam, and after performing nearly 1.5 million inspections, PB saw the internet as an opportunity to train their inspectors more quickly and
more efficiently.

Enter Knowledge Direct® WEB. In December 2005, PB and Digitec joined forces to deliver online training for FEMA Housing Inspectors. In addition to deploying training for the inspectors, Digitec designed and produced five additional online courses for FEMA inspectors.

The site went live in June 2006, and has already produced more than 10,000 course certifications for FEMA inspectors.

Since inspectors need to receive training in locations where there is no internet connectivity, Digitec created a fully functional offline version of PB’s courses, so their inspectors can continue training even when on a disaster site with no internet connection. This allows PB to get their forces in place on a disaster site, get them trained in a short period of time, with very limited technological resources, and get them out to the people affected by the disaster.

Digitec is proud to be a part of this
important partnership.