Advanced Professional Series (APS)
This program, as well as the Professional Development Series program, are programs sponsored and recognized by FEMA. Each is designed for emergency management professionals across the career spectrum.
Students who complete the five required courses and any five of the 18 elective courses are eligible to receive the Emergency Management Institute’s Advanced Professional Series (APS) Certificate of Completion.
Upon completion of all training, the individual applicant must submit a request for their APS certificate through VDEM. Copies of all supporting certificates/ documentation must accompany the APS Request Form available here for download.
Required Courses
Course | Description |
|---|---|
IS2200 | Basic EOC Functions |
G191 | Incident Command System/Emergency Operations Center Interface, or E/L449 ICS Train the Trainer* |
G557 | Rapid Assessment Workshop |
G205 | Recovery from Disaster, the Local Government Role, or E210 Recovery from Disaster, the Local Government Role* |
G393 | Mitigation for Emergency Managers (or G318, below) |
G318 | Mitigation Planning for Local Governments, either Mitigation course will satisfy the APS requirements |
Elective Courses (choose any 5)
Course | Description |
|---|---|
G288 | Local Volunteer and Donations Management |
G364 | Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools, or L363 Multi-Hazard Planning for Higher Education* |
IS703.a | NIMS Resource Management, Independent Study (or IS703, below) |
IS703 | NIMS Resource Management, Independent Study |
E/G202 | Debris Management Planning for State, Local and Tribal Officials* |
G386 | Mass Fatalities |
G361 | Flood Fight Operations |
IEMC | One of the IEMC courses E900* |
G108 | Community Mass Care and Emergency Assistance |
G358 | Evacuation and Re-entry Planning |
G290 | Basic Public Information Officers, or E388 Advanced Public Information Officer* or E/L952 All Hazards Public Information Officer, or E/L/K0105: Public Information and Warning |
G271 | Hazardous Weather and Flood Preparedness (or IS271, below) |
IS271 | Anticipating Hazardous Weather and Community Risk, (Independent Study) or, below, |
E/L/K 0102 | Fundamentals of Threats and Hazards (formerly Science of Disasters). |
G272 | Warning Coordination |
E/L/K 146 | Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) |
G235 | Emergency Planning or L0103: Planning: Emergency Operations |
E/L/G 0141 | Instructional Facilitation Skills or Instructional Presentation and Evaluation Skills |
* All substitute E or L courses are subject to the Approval of the State Training Officer.
* Some equivalent or substitute courses are accepted for the APS certificate requests. All substitute E/L or G courses are subject to the approval of the VDEM State Training Officer.
Course descriptions, information regarding the original required courses and changes to course electives are available on FEMA’s website at https://training.fema.gov/programs/aps/
Upon completion of all training, the individual applicant must submit a request for their APS certificate through VDEM. Copies of all supporting certificates/ documentation must accompany the APS Request Form.
Resources
Advanced Professional Series Application [PDF, 163 KB] (Last Updated: June 2025)