Waverley/Woollahra SES conducts regular meeting and training nights every Tuesday evening with briefing commencing at 7pm.  As well as these regular, scheduled training sessions, weekend training days and exercises are conducted to reduce the length of many courses.

SES is a fully accredited training organisation and each volunteer has the opportunity to undergo specialty training to develop new skills and to maintain their current skills qualifications.

Listed below are most of the training courses available to members of Waverley/Woollahra SES:

Training

• Induction - An introduction to the SES organisation, as well as training on safety and teamwork within the SES.
• Maintain Team Safety - This is largely about Occupational Health & Safety & Risk Management within the SES.
• Operate Communication Equipment - How to correctly use the SES radio network & other communications methods.
• Electrical Safety - Teaches basic electrical safety, especially around fallen power lines.
• First Aid - This is a fully accredited  and industry recognised First Aid Certificate that is compulsory for all volunteers in the field.
• General Rescue - Training in General Rescue including rescuing casualties, including casualties that are lightly trapped, at a height or at a depth and exploring likely survival points for potential survivors. Includes such topics as Fire Fighting, Casualty Handling, USAR Markings & Searches, Rescues from Heights & Depths, Ladders, Tools, Lifting & Stabilising, Lighting & Generators.
• Storm and Water Damage - Training for emergencies from storms and flooding. The training covers preparation, building construction and damage, wind damage, use of pumps, use of height safety kits, tree damage and water damage.
• Map Reading - Training on how to read maps and land marks during land searches and to enable navigation in urban & rural environments.
• Land Search - This course covers how to conduct searches for missing persons and how to gather evidence for the Police and preserve a crime scene in the correct manner.
• Work in Operations Centre - Learning how SES Operations Centres work. This includes inbound emergencies, task allocations, team management and organisation of call out responses.
• Chainsaw - The Chainsaw Course is split up into 2 different competencies,  Limbing and Cross Cutting and Simple Tree Felling.
• Flood Boat - How to operate a flood boat during an emergency situation, including the transport of people, animals & supplies in fast-flowing waters.
• Skills Trainer and Evidence Gatherer - This is an abbreviation of the Assessor & Workplace Trainer formal qualification to enable volunteers to train and assess other SES volunteers.
• Team Leader - Training on how to become a team leader within the SES.
• Air Observer - Teaches how to recognise objects from the air.
• RFA Online - Teaches how to enter Requests For Assistance electronically and how to manage tasking, teams and reports using the RFA Online computer programme.

• The annual STAR (Search Tactics and Rescue) exercise, normally conducted in Royal National Park or Heathcote National Park or at Camp Coutts Scout Camp at Waterfall.
• Nav. Shield exercise (Navigation)
• Barrington Tops SAREX (Search & Rescue Exercise)
• Nav Rescue: This is an annual competition in navigation & rescue conducted in Wollongong and was won, for the fourth straight time, by one of our three competing teams.
• Wellington Wombats: cave rescue training weekend at Wellington in Western NSW.
• Skills Maintenance Exercise Days: practice exercises to ensure the currency of our skills, minimum 2 per year.