All new employees to Williamson County Emergency Communications (WCEC) must successfully complete an 8–12-week academy in our state-of-the-art simulation lab. During this time, we teach our employees the skills they will need to be successful in this profession. This includes, but are not limited to training on:
- Technology related training
- Solacom and Cisco phone systems
- Standards and Guidelines
- FEMA Incident Command & NIMS Courses
- Police, Fire and Medical nature codes
- Geography
- CPR
- County resources
It is during our academy that candidates will complete their TCOLE (Texas Commission on Law Enforcement) Basic Telecommunicator Course and will take the State Telecommunicator Licensing Exam. For a listing of requirements for this license visit this website .
Upon successful completion of the academy, employees move to the Communications floor and are assigned a trainer to begin training in the following areas:
- Non-emergency phone training
- 911 phone training
- EMD (Emergency Medical Dispatch) credential training
- EFD (Emergency Fire Dispatch) credential training
- TLETS/NLETS and TCIC/NCIC training
- EPD (Emergency Police Dispatch) credential training
Upon successful completion of all training phases and additional items, employees are merit eligible. (See our career ladder for details.) Merit is a court approved percentage or lump sum amount rewarding employees for going above and beyond. The amount and type of merit is determined by Williamson County Commissioners Court approval for each fiscal year.
Williamson County Emergency Communications has high standards for our employees. Employees can expect verbal and written exams, practical scenario-based training, and testing on a regular basis both during training and through continued employment.