We often get the question, "What does GP Strategies do?

The excerpt below is from a story "Fort Polk firefighters conduct Tiger team training" in the Leesville Daily Leader. It gives a good example of what the professions at GP Strategies are capable of in a post-9/11 world:

"A package is delivered to an office building on Fort Polk. The recipient opens the package and discoversa white powder and broken vial containing an unidentified liquid. No one knows where it came from, what it is or if it’s hazardous. Multiple people have been exposed to the chemical. Someone calls Fort Polk Fire and Emergency Services to report the incident. Firefighters arrive on scene, but what happens next?

Fort Polk Emergency Services firefighters train often for every possibility. From March 5-9, the firefighters participated in “Tiger Team Training” with GP Strategies, an organization contracted by the Army.

“We bought some high-tech equipment recently that we needed outside help with," said Jose Fejarang, the assistant chief of operations for Fort Polk Fire and Emergency Services. "Because of these folks’ (GP Strategies) knowledge of the equipment, we asked them to come and address our issues."

Cliff Brown and Angus MacIver, training specialists for GP Strategies from Pine Bluff, Ark., were the instructors for the Tiger Team Training.

“We hold a classroom and theory portion, followed by practical application," Brown said. "We try to discuss previous events and lessons learned to develop basic components for the future. Then, we let them use what they’ve learned with hands-on application."

Since May 2010, GP Strategies has trained more than 12,700 firefighters at different installations around the world. Other trainings included using gas monitors, detecting chemical weapons, using radiation detectors, HAZMAT identification and infrared technology and more. Brown said that the organization tries to focus on hands-on scenarios, so the responders know how to use the equipment.

“If we aren’t training on (HAZMAT) for a class or doing it often, we can forget that stuff," said firefighter Charles Stemler, of Fort Polk DES. "The hands-on parts make it like you’re solving the problem for real. Some day you may actually be doing it and you need to know how."

See the full story here.

GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE: GPX) is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, eLearning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers. GP Strategies Corporation is the new name of General Physics Corporation, which merged with its parent company (also called GP Strategies) on December 31, 2011 and changed its name. Additional information may be found at www.gpstrategies.com.