The Firefighter Candidate Testing Centers -- formerly the CPAT Testing Centers -- were established in 2004 by the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee (Cal-JAC). The Cal-JAC -- a joint labor-management partnership between California Professional Firefighters and the California State Fire Marshal -- is the established leader in recruitment, outreach and standardized training programs for firefighters in California. 

The three testing centers -- in Orange, Livermore and Sacramento -- have tested more than 30,000 candidates on the physical skills they will need to become a successful firefighter. The CPAT is the recognized standard for physical ability testing in California, providing hundreds of departments statewide with a valid, transportable test that spares them the expense of conducting physical ability testing themselves.

In 2014, CFFJAC expanded its CPAT centers to include written testing and the Firefighter Candidate Testing Center was born. The FCTC Written Test was developed from the ground up by fire service and human resource experts. FCTC also continues to offer stand-alone CPAT testing to departments and offers document verification and outreach services. Qualified candidates are placed on the FCTC Statewide List, from which fire departments around the state are able to draw for fire department openings.

FCTC extends CFFJAC's decades of expertise and outreach to underserved groups to build a comprehensive pre-employment screening service that connects California fire departments with candidates that have a higher likelihood of success.