In the late 1990’s, Florida University of Sanitary Education (FUSE) developed an apprenticeship program, similar to the ongoing program in Florida, for Vietnam Veterans, under the grant program established; however the program was mothballed, due to the lack of funding and the closure of the grant – training program.  Later, in 1999, the program was re-vitalized to incorporate the proposed operator training program and meet the requirements for continuing education for license renewals in the state of Florida.  The incentive was explored to enhance operator training and to create multiple modules to address a wide range of topics and subject matters.  The study and investigation into these training techniques were met with major interest from many arenas, and the scope was expanded to include these individual trainers and programs.  Thus, FUSE was re-established as a non-profit and registered with the state of Florida on November 19, 2004.  FUSE, Florida University of Sanitary Education has remained in good standing with the:

• Florida Department of State, Document # N04000010829
• IRS Federal ID # 20-1900590 and listed as a 501 C3 organization

Our objective was to implement the techniques and successful procedures of operation and maintenance training into a new arena, to assist operators via local trainers and utility organizations.  The mission of FUSE is to provide water and wastewater treatment plant operators and supporting staff with the latest in emerging technologies, process control, procedures, methods, and/or improved concepts in a training program to enrich their knowledge and experience within the workplace and to help them obtain required Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for license re-certification.

The FUSE Team has the experience and knowledge to evaluate technical material for training courses and presentations.  Our service includes:

• Preparing and selecting topics
• Developing a working schedule and call for papers
• Evaluating and ranking manuscripts
• Coordinating and presenting pre-conference workshops, technical sessions, and specialty conferences on a statewide and national basis.

We provide the State of Florida with an advanced approach to operator training in selection of training programs, sponsors, and e-learning.   FUSE standardized on the FDEP categories for courses, provides updated course offerings reports on a regular basis, and utilizes the Manual for Approving Continuing Education Courses for Operator Licensing and pledges our commitment to increasing the educational aspects of operator training by working with the Operator Certification Program of FDEP.  Because of our experience in technical review, FUSE is aware of the relevancy to course content requirements, learning objectives, course contact time requirements, tracking and monitoring of students’ progress, and reporting these requirements to the state on a timely basis.  Our program has been modeled on the FDEP manual and includes many national requirements, as mentioned above.

FUSE is committed to a long term plan of developing training sponsors and materials, in which students retain knowledge from their courses, rather than memorizing answers just to pass a course quiz.  FUSE is involved in a national discussion of surveying the transfer of knowledge from the instructor and course to the student or operator.  FUSE has worked for many years to obtain the highest level and standardization utilized today in our course curriculum and approvals, thus our policy is to maintain this high level through the review process of any course or sponsor solicitation.

Our website has been custom built to assist the Training Sponsor Program, located at:  www.fuse.ws.  As illustrated on the site, it provides instructors and training organizations with a review of the FDEP OCP Training Manual and our standard course development requirements.  The site includes an online application form for sponsorship and course submission.

Florida University of Sanitary Education (FUSE) has been developed with the operator in mind. It is our hope to strengthen the FDEP program and role within the operator community.  FUSE has the experience and knowledge, from a national perspective, to assist and provide trainers with the latest and most advanced means of tracking and monitoring CEU requirements of water and wastewater operators.

• Pursuant to Chapter 617, Florida Statutes, Florida University of Sanitary Education was organized as a not for profit organization and assigned Federal Tax ID Number: F201900590
• State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Corporations assigned a Florida Non Profit status to Florida University of Sanitary Education on November 18, 2004 and issued document number N 04000010829
• State of Florida, Secretary of State, Corporation Division Registration # G04324900141 issued November 19, 2004
• Florida Department of Environment Protection Training Provider ID number: # 8