Our Company
Raven Rescue is a Canadian company with 25 years in the rescue training and safety business. We are the leading provider of technical rescue training in Canada.
We are the Official Agent for Rescue 3 International in Canada. Rescue 3 is the recognized world leader in technical rescue training for swiftwater, rope, helicopter and ice. Through our affiliation with Rescue 3, we are able to provide certifications that are NFPA compliant and recognized as the “standard-of-care”, or recommended training, in Canada and around the world.
We are also the Western Canadian provider for Wilderness Medical Associates, an organization devoted to the development of remote and practical medicine across Canada and beyond. With its international affiliates, WMA provides wilderness medical education training on all seven continents and the curriculum we use is the most recognized in wilderness medicine.
Our Approach
We believe there is a certain set of skills and knowledge that everyone needs to know if they are working in high-risk environments like moving water, on surface ice or in the backcountry. You need to know how to evaluate a location for potential risks, how to work safely in the environment, and what to do if yourself or a colleague gets in trouble. To read more about our approach, curriculum, customization, ‘Challenge by Choice’ and professional qualification workshops click here.
Our Instructors
Our instructors are all highly operational, meaning they routinely work in high-risk environments including swiftwater, surface ice, with technical rope systems or in remote settings. As first responders and medical professionals, they are constantly using the skills they teach and are up-to-date on the latest developments in rescue theory and practice. In addition, all our instructors all have great personalities, teaching ability and a dedication to customer service. This ensures your training experience is enjoyable as well as educational. Click here to read about our instructors.
Our Clients
Among our dedicated clients are federal and provincial resource management departments, major environmental consulting firms, heavy industry and petro-chemical companies, first responders and leading outdoor recreation companies. Click here to view our Client List.
Our Commitment
We are committed to providing the very best training and the very best customer service. Let us know how we can help meet your training needs. Contact us today!
Raven Rescue is proud to have a long list of satisfied clients from both the public and private sectors.
Emergency Response
Squadron 442 Search and Rescue
Vancouver Police Department
RCMP Underwater Recovery Team
Maple Ridge Fire Department
North Vancouver District Fire Department
Nanaimo Search and Rescue
Chilliwack Search and Rescue
North Cedar Fire Department
Prince George Search and Rescue
Cranbrook Fire and Emergency Services
Squamish Emergency Program
Squamish Fire rescue
Squamish Fire Department
West Vancouver Fire Department
Kimberly Fire Department
Canadian Coast Guard
Justice Institute
Arctic Response
Northern Safety Network Yukon
Edmonton Fire Rescue Services
Rocky Mountain House Fire Department
Canmore Fire and EMS Services
Red Deer Search and Rescue
Resource Management
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Parks Canada
Environment Canada
BC Ministry of Environment
BC Parks
BC Conservation Foundation
Saskatchewan Environment
Golder Associates
AMEC Environmental
Triton Environmental
Rescan Environmental
North South Consultants
Esh-kn-nam Fisheries
Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations
Old Crow First Nations
Alberta Sustainable Resource Development
Alberta Fish and Wildlife
Alberta Conservation Association
Newfoundland Environment Conservation Department
Engineering & Industry
Petro Canada
BC Hydro
NovaGold
Denison Environmental
Worley Parsons
Yukon Mine Training Association
Fluor Canada
Knights Piesold
Destiny Resources
Wolf Surveying
Manitoba Hydro
NAV Canada
North West Hydraulic Consultants
Hydro Quebec
Recreation
Interior Whitewater
Kumsheen Rafting Company
Reo Rafting
Pitt River Lodge
Bear Claw Lodge
Kispiox River Fishing Company
NWT Kayak Associations
Up North Adventures
Alpine Club of Canada
NWT Recreation and Tourism
Kananaskis Ski Patrol
Mt. Morseby Adventure Camp
Mountain Equipment Canada
HeLa Ventures
Jasper Raft Tours
Ceyana Canoe Club
Strathcona Wilderness Center
Yamnuska Mountain School
Education
University of British Columbia
Yukon College
University of Alberta
College of New Caledonia
University of Northern BC
Fraser Cascade Mountain School
University of Saskatchewan Medical School
University of British Columbia Medical School
Valemount College
Lakehead University
Thompson Rivers University
Contact us for references. We’d be happy to put you in touch with clients in your field that can provide third-party endorsement of our training and customer service.
We believe training should be tailored to the specific needs of each client. While we teach all the skills and knowledge necessary for certification, we approach a course for emergency personnel in an entirely different manner than one for resource managers or outdoor guides.
We believe there is a certain set of skills and knowledge that everyone needs to know if they are working in challenging environments like moving water and surface ice. You need to know how to evaluate a location for potential risks, how to work safely in the environment, and what to do if yourself or a colleague gets in trouble—and you’ve got to know how to perform a rescue safely and fast. However, a team of emergency personnel responding to an incident where someone is already in trouble is going to emphasize different skills than a fisheries biologist who works alone in moving water or on frozen rivers, day-after-day.
Proven Curriculum
We start with a proven curriculum, developed by Rescue 3 International—the global leader in technical rescue training for high risk environments on land, in the water and in the air. This curriculum is developed by leaders in the field of technical rescue and constantly refined and updated by a world-wide cadre of over 700 instructors in 33 different countries. Obviously, with more than 90,000 students who have taken Rescue 3’s courses worldwide, we’ve refined our approach until it is the absolute best in the business.
Customization
The next step is to tailor our approach to the individual client to make sure the skills and knowledge they learn are taught in a way that makes them relevant to their unique work environment. There’s no sense spending valuable training time learning techniques that have absolutely no relevance to what you do every day. Emergency responders will obviously spend more time on Incident Command Systems than a water quality technician would. And conversely, an oilfield worker would be taught more about the analysis of ice structure, thickness and strength because they often have to work on it for days in a row, whereas emergency personnel already know the ice is unsafe when they arrive on-scene where someone has fallen through. As well, first responders would focus more on performing go-rescues than a water quality specialist who would want to emphasize self-rescue. Again, every student is taught all the skills and knowledge required for certification, but the emphasis is different depending on the person’s job description.
Client-Orientation
We are able to take the standard curriculum and adapt it because we employ only top-notch, professional instructors who are not only extremely competent rescue technicians, but also gifted teachers. We believe our people are one of our strongest assets, and you won’t find a blow-hard cowboy in the bunch. Our instructors are personable, respectful and customer-oriented. They focus on giving clients the very best training possible, given their unique needs and the environment they work in.
Challenge by Choice
We also recognize that in every group, there is a range of abilities. Some people are going to excel at the skills we teach, others are going to find them overwhelming and beyond their comfort level. For that reason, we support “Challenge by Choice” which means that if at any time, a student feels that they are unable to perform a skill as requested, they have the option to observe only. This decision is noted on the student’s personalized skill sheet and provides a detailed snapshot of each individual’s abilities, strengths and weaknesses following a course. Supervisors can use this information to determine the range of activities to which each employee is best-suited. Some trainers claim this approach is not rigorous enough, but we believe caution is the sign of a safe employee and that knowing personal limits is critical to operating safely in high risk environments.
Unparalleled Documentation
Court cases prove time and time again that training isn’t worth much if you can’t prove it, so we provide extensive documentation of each student’s training. First, each student is assigned a certification number so that they can access their training record at any time in the future, for employment or legal reasons. Then, each person receives a skill sheet (training record) that lists the specific skills and knowledge taught, the relevant NPFA standard, and whether the student performed or observed each skill. The instructor signs and dates the record and adds any concerns he has about the individual’s skill level or abilities. This becomes an invaluable training record that should be kept in a personnel file and should form the basis for decisions regarding the types of activities the individual is suited to perform. Then, each skill sheet is entered into a database maintained by Rescue 3 International. The training record can be accessed at any time, with only a phone call or an email, by simply quoting the individual certification number. Students also receive a wallet card with their certification number and certification expiry date, and a framable Certificate of Achievement. It is this high-level of record-keeping that is needed to demonstrate “due diligence” by employers and is one of the many ways our approach is unmatched by other training providers.
Professional Qualification
And finally, it is important to have a rigorous standard for individuals like our instructors, private rescue consultants and standby rescue specialists who need to be able to prove their proficiency to third parties. For these highly-motivated people, we provide Professional Qualification Workshops where students are tested against set criteria and must perform to a specific standard. Upon completion of this course, an individual is certified as having met all the criteria for the NPFA’s 1670 and 1006 standard. This is a long process as true competence takes many years and many hours of training and practice to achieve. The majority of our clients in emergency response are more than satisfied with the comprehensive nature of training achieved through our NFPA 1670 compliant courses. For more information on Professional Qualification Workshops, please contact Rescue 3 International.
