It is a hands-on training program developed by Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ in partnership with Proventus that helps manufacturers build, test, and strengthen their emergency response capabilities. The program is designed to minimize downtime, protect people, and ensure business continuity when a crisis hits.

Unlike a standard compliance course, this program produces real, usable deliverables — including a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) tailored to your specific facility — along with the trained team that knows how to execute it.

The program is a joint initiative between Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ (BRTC) and Proventus, delivered at the ARROW Center in Jonesboro, Arkansas. BRTC provides the workforce development infrastructure and program administration; Proventus provides the operational expertise, facilitation, and the ARROW Center's state-of-the-art Situation Room — a dedicated facility purpose-built for emergency management training and simulation.

Most manufacturers face eight critical gaps in their emergency preparedness posture that this program is designed to close:

• Incomplete or outdated emergency plans,
• Unclear roles and responsibilities during an incident,
• Weak communication protocols under pressure,
• Limited management involvement in emergency planning,
• Lack of employee training and awareness,
• No testing or exercise of the existing plan,
• Insufficient resource identification for emergencies,
• Poor coordination with external emergency responders.

By the end of the program, each of these gaps will have been identified, addressed, and documented for your facility.

The financial and operational stakes are significant. Consider these industry benchmarks:

$250,000+ — average cost of unplanned downtime per hour of production lost
72 hours — average downtime experienced by facilities without a tested emergency plan
40% — of industrial employers are in violation of OSHA's Emergency Action Plan rule
34% — of industrial employers currently lack any formal emergency response plan

An untested or nonexistent emergency plan is not a neutral position — it is an active financial and regulatory liability.

The program is built for manufacturing and industrial employers — food processors, fabricators, distribution centers, chemical plants, agricultural operations, and any industrial facility where an unplanned disruption carries significant financial, safety, or regulatory consequence.

It is specifically designed for the incumbent workforce: the people inside the facility who would bear direct responsibility during an actual emergency.

Most participating companies send a cohort of three to five employees drawn from the following functions:

• Plant Manager / Facility Director — The person who would serve as Incident Commander. This program is built around the decisions they make in the first 60 minutes.
• EHS Director / Safety Manager — Likely has an existing plan. This program identifies where it breaks and provides documentation to prove it doesn't.
• Operations / Shift Supervisor — Often the first person on scene before leadership arrives. This gives them a framework for those critical first minutes.
• IT Manager — Technology failures can stop production cold. Their role in a disruption extends well beyond IT systems.
• HR / Administrative Lead — Employee communication and payroll continuity are OSHA requirements during a crisis. This ensures someone owns them.

The multi-role cohort model is intentional. When a plant manager, a floor supervisor, a safety professional, and an IT manager complete this program together, they leave with a shared vocabulary and a shared understanding of their individual roles in a coordinated response.

The program addresses the full spectrum of disruptions facing industrial facilities, organized across three categories:

Man-Made Emergencies

• Workplace injury and fatality, fire and explosion, chemical and hazmat release, active threat, civil unrest

Technological Emergencies

• Cybersecurity breach, IT and OT system failure, power and utility outage, supply chain disruption, data loss

Natural Emergencies

Tornado and severe storms, flooding, winter storm and ice events, extreme heat, earthquake and structural damage

The program follows a structured five-phase methodology totaling 120 hours:

Phase 1 — Self-Study & Assessment  (40 hrs)  Participants assess their facility's existing policies, plans, and procedures — establishing a baseline and identifying gaps before instruction begins.

Phase 2 — FEMA Core Learning  (40 hrs, corequisite)  Participants complete FEMA Independent Study modules covering Incident Command System, NIMS, and continuity of operations planning — completed concurrently with Phase 1.

Phase 3 — In-Person Classroom Instruction  (24 hrs)  Instructor-led sessions apply the FEMA frameworks to manufacturing-specific scenarios and build out each component of the participant's emergency response and continuity plan.

Phase 4 — Instruction, Draft COOP & Peer Review  (16 hrs)  Continued in-person instruction combined with presentation of each participant's draft Continuity of Operations Plan for structured peer and instructor feedback.

Phase 5 — Revise, Complete & Submit Final COOP  (40 hrs)  Participants incorporate feedback, finalize their COOP, and submit the completed document — the primary deliverable of the program.

The ARROW Center Situation Room is a dedicated emergency management facility at the Proventus campus in Jonesboro, Arkansas. It features a floor-projection display system that allows participants to interact with facility maps, threat overlays, and live scenario data at scale during the simulation phase of the program.

This capability is unique in the region. No other training provider in Arkansas or the surrounding area offers a purpose-built simulation environment of this kind for industrial emergency management training.

The program is structured across five phases totaling 120 hours per participant:

Phase 1  —  Self-Study  (40 hours)
Participants assess their facility's existing policies, plans, and procedures. This self-directed phase establishes a baseline understanding of current preparedness and identifies gaps before formal instruction begins.

Phase 2  —  FEMA Core Learning  (40 hours, corequisite)
Participants complete 40 hours of FEMA Independent Study training modules covering foundational emergency management frameworks — Incident Command System, NIMS, continuity of operations, and related disciplines. These are completed as a corequisite alongside Phase 1 and are tracked through the federal FEMA student portal.

Phase 3  —  In-Person Classroom Instruction  (24 hours)
Instructor-led classroom sessions apply the FEMA frameworks to manufacturing-specific scenarios and begin building out each component of the participant's emergency response and continuity plan.

Phase 4  —  Instruction, Draft COOP & Peer Review  (16 hours)
Continued in-person instruction combined with presentation of each participant's draft Continuity of Operations Plan for structured peer and instructor feedback. This phase stress-tests the plan before finalization.

Phase 5  —  Revise, Complete & Submit Final COOP  (40 hours)
Participants incorporate feedback from Phase 4, finalize their Continuity of Operations Plan, and submit the completed document. This phase produces the primary deliverable of the program — a facility-specific COOP ready for adoption.

Total Program Hours: 120 hours per participant

Every participant leaves with five concrete deliverables:

A Completed COOP (Continuity of Operations Plan)
A facility-specific Continuity of Operations Plan tailored to your operation — not a template, a working document. This is the primary deliverable of the program.

A Tested Response Framework
A validated emergency response and communication framework that has been stress-tested through live scenario simulation before your team ever needs it in a real incident.

Greater Confidence
Stronger readiness and confidence across your leadership team — built through the experience of leading through a real-world crisis simulation, not just reading about one.

Compliance Support Documentation
Documentation package supporting OSHA Emergency Action Plan requirements, insurance carrier expectations, and applicable regulatory audit standards.

A Hands-On Simulation Experience
A company-specific crisis simulation conducted in the ARROW Center Situation Room — the only facility of its kind in the region.

The program is designed to serve both starting points equally:

No existing plan: Participants build a complete, OSHA-compliant Emergency Action Plan and Continuity of Operations Plan from the ground up during the program. Every section is completed using your facility's real information — not hypothetical examples.

Existing plan that needs improvement: Participants bring their current plan into the program. The assessment and simulation phases identify specific gaps, outdated sections, and untested assumptions. Participants leave with a significantly strengthened plan and the gap closure documentation to support it.

In both cases, the outcome is the same: a current, tested, facility-specific plan and a team that knows how to execute it.

Program pricing is available upon request. Contact the BRTC workforce development office or Proventus directly for current enrollment rates, session dates, and available funding options.

Yes. Arkansas employers may have access to significant funding to offset training costs:

• Arkansas Existing Workforce Training Program (EWTP): Administered by the Arkansas Division of Workforce Services, EWTP funds skills upgrade training for existing employees at qualifying manufacturers. BRTC's standing as an approved workforce development provider enables direct access.
• Arkansas Office of Skills Development (OSD): Provides grants for industry-specific training delivered through technical colleges. BRTC has existing OSD relationships that qualifying employers can access through this program.

We encourage every prospective participant to ask about funding eligibility as a first step. Contact the BRTC workforce development office to check your eligibility before enrolling.

Contact the BRTC workforce development office or Proventus directly using the information below. We will confirm your eligibility for workforce development funding, discuss session dates, and answer any program-specific questions about your facility's situation.

Most companies send a cohort of three to four employees. We recommend including at least one decision-maker (Plant Manager, COO, or EHS Director) and one or two operational leads (shift supervisor, IT manager, or HR).

Once enrollment is confirmed and funding eligibility is verified, your team can begin the FEMA pre-work immediately — it is self-paced and available online at no cost through the FEMA Emergency Management Institute. The live virtual capstone sessions are scheduled on a rolling basis.

Contact us today to check seat availability for the next session and confirm your Arkansas workforce funding eligibility.

Almost certainly yes. Having a plan on paper and having a tested, current, executable plan are two very different things. Research consistently shows that most emergency plans fail in real incidents not because they were written incorrectly, but because:

• They have never been exercised under realistic conditions
• Key personnel have changed since the plan was written
• The plan doesn't account for simultaneous or cascading incidents
• The team that would execute it has never reviewed it together

The simulation phase of this program is specifically designed to expose exactly these gaps in existing plans. Participants with an existing plan often find the program more valuable, not less — because the simulation gives them a safe environment to discover where their plan breaks before an actual incident does.