Simulated workplaceCAQA Guardian Emergency Services is a fictional business created by CAQA for training and assessment. It is not a real company and no person, client or record here is real.About this simulation
PUACAQA GuardianSimulated workplace
Simulated workplace
Scenario · Emergency Communications Centre

Take emergency calls and dispatch resources on a supervised shift

You are a Trainee Call Taker and Dispatcher in the Emergency Communications Centre.

Entry3 to 4 hours8 tasks
Start the tasksAll scenarios
Home/Scenarios/Take emergency calls and dispatch resources on a supervised shift
The situation

What has happened

You are on the afternoon shift with the senior dispatcher for your supervised call taking and dispatch. The shift starts with recorded training calls, then you take live calls transferred from the national emergency call service with your supervisor listening in. Console 4 is offline with a headset fault, so you are on console 2. During the shift you will receive a report of a grass fire on a rural road with an unclear location, an automatic fire alarm from an aged care facility, a call from a distressed caller reporting a person trapped in a crashed car, and a request for assistance for a tree on a house. Every incident must be created in the computer aided dispatch system with the right type so the pre-determined response is generated, and the status times must be recorded.

Your brief. Answer and process each call to the protocol, confirm locations, create incidents with the correct type, dispatch the nearest available appropriate resources, control the radio channel, record every status time in the Incident and Dispatch Log, and escalate correctly, while looking after your own welfare after a distressing call.
Read the work request in your inbox
Tasks

Deliverables

  • Incident and Dispatch Log entries for the four incidents with status times
  • A call taking checklist showing the sequence followed for each call
  • A radio log for the road crash incident
  • A shift summary with welfare actions recorded

Documents to use

Systems to use

Incident and Dispatch Log

The official record of every incident and request for assistance, with type, location, resources, incident level, control times, safety officer and debrief status.

Health and Safety Incident Register

The controlled record of injuries, exposures, near misses, hazards, vehicle incidents and equipment failures across stations, units, incidents and workplaces, with investigation and actions to closure.

For trainers and assessors

Units of competency

Current on training.gov.au for the Public Safety as at 10 September 2026.

PUAECO002Process emergency incident calls and enquiries
PUAECO004Operate computer aided dispatch system
PUAECO005Dispatch resources from within an emergency communications centre
PUAECO003Operate and control radio networks
PUACOM001Communicate in the workplace

Qualifications

PUA30822Certificate III in Public Safety (Emergency Communications Centre Operations)
PUA40119Certificate IV in Public Safety (Emergency Communications Centre Operations)
Assessor notes

What to look for

Evidence guide

Observe or review recordings for the greeting and call sequence, location confirmation by read back and mapping, correct incident typing so the right response is generated, immediate dispatch of the automatic fire alarm, calm control of the distressed caller with pre-arrival advice, radio discipline and accurate status times, and appropriate escalation and self-care. The log entries are the primary evidence.

The student's evidence summary lists every record they created or changed in the systems named above, their notes and the tasks they ticked. Verify it against the deliverables and your own assessment tool.