Recent fire incidents in residential and industrial complexes across the UAE have made one fact unavoidable: fire safety in modern buildings is too consequential to be treated as a check-box exercise. High-rise towers, mixed-use developments, and large industrial facilities demand a level of engineering judgement that goes beyond code compliance — it requires people who understand how fire behaves and how to design, build, and maintain environments that withstand it.
The Sharjah Civil Defence Authority and the American University of Sharjah have partnered to deliver a certificate programme that meets exactly this need. The programme combines the Authority's regulatory expertise with the academic depth of AUS's College of Engineering to raise the technical capability of consultants, contractors, engineers, architects, and regulatory officials working across the Emirate.
What Participants Gain
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Apply the latest advances in active and passive fire protection systems and risk assessment to improve building and process safety.
- Evaluate fire behaviour and fire resistance through accepted testing and calculation methods.
- Translate fire-safety engineering theory into practical decisions across buildings, infrastructure, and industrial facilities.
- Explain the fundamentals of fire dynamics, from ignition through flame spread.
- Identify the hazards of chemical fires and explosions and apply appropriate process-risk controls.
- Verify Fire and Life Safety code compliance in building design, installation, and maintenance.
Who Should Attend
The programme is designed for working professionals in fire and life safety:
- Practising design engineers and architects (government and private sector)
- Fire-protection contractors
- Government regulatory and building officials
- Researchers, scientists, and technical officers from government and R&D organisations
Prerequisites
Applicants should hold one of the following:
- A Bachelor's or Master's degree in Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Electromechanical, Mechanical, or Industrial Engineering — or a closely related discipline.
- A Bachelor's or Master's degree in Architecture or Architectural Engineering.
- 3–5 years of professional experience in the Fire and Life Safety industry as a designer, design engineer, contractor, or installation engineer.
- 5–8 years of professional experience in the Fire and Life Safety industry as a technician.