Paul Wilkinson

Following an emergency service career spanning over 33 years, Paul retired from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) in September 2021 with extensive experience, knowledge and qualifications in the operations, training and assessing of both Fire and Rescue Service and multi-agency partners alike.

His roles within GMFRS included over 20 years operational service both retained (on call) and full-time including 8 years on a Command Unit Station.  He spent 4 years with Community Fire Safety where he was responsible for safety and advice to the public, and a further 4 years in Fire Protection carrying out inspections and enforcement under Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

During an 18-month secondment to the National CBRN(e) centre based at the College of Policing, Paul focussed on training and assessing multi-agency personnel within operational, tactical, and strategic roles.  Whilst performing this role Paul was proudly presented with a commendation from Counter Terrorism Policing for his work nationally and internationally with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

He spent 2 years in the GMFRS Contingency Planning Unit involved in NILO training, MTFA, CBRN(e) capability and policy and procedures writing, and the final 2 years were spent as an Incident Command Manager including the management, course development, training and assessing of operational personnel in NOG Incident Command skills from operational, tactical and strategic roles.

Paul gained a multitude of qualifications including Internal Quality Assurance (IQA), Assessing, Training, Coaching, NILO, CBRN(e) Tactical Advisor, Fire Protection and many other skills including XVR (virtual reality software) facilitator.

With this wide and varied skill set, Paul brings a flexible and adaptive role to the KLA team and regularly appears in all our SFJ Award Course from ICL 1 – 4.