Merit and Online CERT Academy Partner to Bring Opportunities to Students & Emergency Response Volunteers

The volunteers of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) have always been a welcome and respected hand to local first responders. Today they are even more vital in our fight to flatten the curve, but many students and volunteers-in-training are unsure of how to continue learning as in-person courses are no longer available. In an effort to support these community volunteers around the country and those who hope to become volunteers soon, Merit has partnered with the Online CERT Academy to provide online class suggestions to emergency response volunteers. These opportunities are set to be included in our latest Merit app feature, Merit Opportunities.

“We are very excited to partner with Merit, not only for Online CERT, but because with the Opportunities program we will be able to further expand students’ awareness of other related courses,” said Rachel Brown, Program Director of Hazardous Waste Worker & Emergency Preparedness at the University of Utah, the department that assisted in creating the Online CERT Academy.

The Online CERT Academy course makes volunteer training easier by allowing participants to take the classroom coursework online at any time, and Brown estimates about 50 thousand participants this year. With this partnership, Merit and the Online CERT Academy will enable those students to discover multiple free classes that they may have been unaware were available. In turn, helping emergency response volunteers continue to serve the communities they care about.

Merit Opportunities will assist in notifying students of all of the online options they have while in-person training is paused, as well as provide their digital credentials once they are earned. With the merits (the digitized version of credentials) they earn, students and volunteers will be able to view more opportunities including next-level certifications, continuing course education, or invites to events happening in the future. Emergency response volunteers will finally have all relevant resources in one, easily accessible place.

Merit will continue rolling out more opportunities that expand beyond the emergency response community in the coming weeks. Learn more about how Merit Opportunities works in our announcement here or visit Merits.com/Opportunities.