Ranfurly Fire Brigade volunteer William McBride said cadet programmes had been part of other countries fire services like in Australia and the United Kingdom.
There were four privately run firefighting cadet programmes in New Zealand, they had been combined and begun to work together to create a national programme for other brigades in the country.
Last year Mr McBride went to Australia and met with brigades which ran a cadet programme to see how it could be applied in New Zealand.
The process of setting up a national cadet programme was in the final stages and was close to becoming a reality.
"It's definitely not at the start, it is very, very ready to go."
With the support of the New Zealand Fire Brigades Institute, money had been put into creating promotional videos for the cadet programme as well as professionals to create policies, procedures and guidelines to protect the children and volunteers taking part in the programme.
Mr McBride said they had collaborated with the Victoria Country Fire Authority and bought back their session plans and resources to combine it with some of the things that brigades here had been doing.
All that is left to do is to formalise it as an officially supported national programme.
Some brigadeshad been operating their own unofficial cadet programme, Waimangaroa on the West Coast have run a programme for over 20 years.
Like the cadet forces, which prepared youth for a future career in the military, the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) programme would help prepare youth to join the organisation as well as to benefit the communities which host them.
"It's also not all about joining [the] fire service, that's a benefit to it and that's a benefit for communities, for fire brigades and for fire and emergency but it's also if these kids do it for five years they go on, move up to Auckland and it benefits them in their career being a doctor."
The Fenz programme would run one night a-week for children aged 12-16.
Each week’s session would be different, reflecting the change in the responsibilities of Fenz which had become more than firefighting.
"We're going to all sorts of emergencies so yeah, there's lots of skills, I mean they could learn, you know, if you turn up to a car crash in your own vehicle, how to stay safe in that situation and what to do, what's the right thing to do."
Cadets could learn about medical skills, where defibrillators were in their town, fire safety in the home, firefighting skills like running hoses as well as social activities like movie nights.
Mr McBride said there was interest in the cadet programme from other brigades around New Zealand.
