Frequently asked questions
About EMPS
The Emergency Management Professionalisation Scheme (EMPS) is a credentialling scheme that formally recognises emergency management as a profession by establishing nationally consistent standards for people in key decision‑making roles during emergencies. EMPS emphasises professional judgement, experience, ethical behaviour and continuous development, rather than task‑based competencies.
EMPS is for people whose roles require them to make complex decisions that influence incident objectives, risk acceptance, operational control, community safety or system‑level outcomes. This includes incident management roles and a limited number of specialist expert and capability leadership roles.
EMPS does not credential frontline responders, operators or technical specialists whose primary role is to carry out tasks under direction (such as firefighters, pilots, aircrew, machinery operators or technicians). Training, licensing and authorisation for those roles are managed through other systems.
No. EMPS credentials are not compulsory and do not replace agency policy, training, licensing or appointment processes. Participation in EMPS is voluntary and is supported by AFAC member agencies and organisations that choose to use the Scheme as a way of recognising professional capability and experience. Some agencies encourage or prioritise EMPS participation for certain roles, particularly where national interoperability, deployment readiness or professional assurance is important, but any requirement to hold an EMPS credential is a decision for individual agencies or jurisdictions. EMPS operates alongside existing systems and provides an additional layer of professional recognition rather than a mandatory qualification.
EMPS credentials
EMPS roles fall into four broad groups:
-
Incident Management Team (IMT) roles (e.g. Incident Controller, Operations Officer, Planning Officer)
-
Capability leadership roles (e.g. aviation coordination and supervision roles)
-
Incident‑critical expert roles (e.g. Fire Investigator, Fire Behaviour Analyst, Prescribed Burn Controller)
-
Senior command and strategic roles (e.g. Strategic Commander)
No. Many EMPS roles align directly with AIIMS Incident Management Team functions, but some roles sit alongside AIIMS rather than within it. These additional roles are included where professional judgement directly influences incident decisions, safety or outcomes.
Some aviation roles operate at the interface between incident management and aerial firefighting operations. These roles involve planning, coordinating or supervising aviation in high‑risk environments, and decisions made in these roles can directly affect safety and incident outcomes. EMPS recognises the professional judgement required in these coordination and supervision roles.
These specialist roles are included because their professional judgement can:
-
influence incident objectives
-
constrain or enable control decisions
-
affect community safety
-
inform recovery, investigations and future prevention
EMPS includes specialist roles only where the primary responsibility is expert decision‑making, rather than task execution. Many specialist roles are essential to operations but are managed through training, certification, and jurisdictional authorisation systems outside of EMPS.
Applications
If you have undertaken any nationally recognised training in Australia since 2015, you should have an existing USI. To retrieve a forgotten USI, visit https://www.usi.gov.au/faqs/i-have-forgotten-my-usi.
If you do not have an existing USI, you do not need to obtain one for the purpose of EMPS registration or certification.
Your first point of call is your organisational EMPS administrator, who will be able to assist with your agency endorsement and application.
If you do not know who to contact or you are not associated with an AFAC member agency, please contact the AFAC EMPS team for assistance.