First Aid Trainer Course

First Aid Trainer Course

How do I qualify as a First Aid Trainer?  The qualifications required to teach accredited first aid awards and become a first aid instructor have changed over the last couple of years.  You can no longer teach accredited first aid at work or emergency first aid with just a first aid trainer award, as this will not be accepted by any of the UK awarding bodies.

Teaching Qualification

So you qualify as a first aid trainer you first and foremost you will need to have an entry-level teaching qualification. The PDLSG – Planning and Delivering Learning Sessions to Groups Award or the ETA – Level 3 Award in Education and Training qualification gives the teaching award accepted by all awarding bodies. This course is nationally accredited and by its conclusion will allow the successful candidate to teach any subject they have experience in.

First Aid at Work Qualification

OK, so you now have a teaching qualification either PDLSG or ETA that proves your competence as a trainer. What’s next is to match it up with some relevant experience. The easiest way to do this is to obtain the Level 3 First Aid at Work Award.  but also you can do a CPD manual handling award. Holding the teaching qualification and current experience will allow you to teach the following courses:

  • 3 day First Aid at Work
  • 2 day First Aid at Work renewal
  • 1 day Emergency First Aid
  • 2 day Paediatric First Aid
  • 1 day Emergency Paediatric First Aid
  • 1 day First Aid Essentials
  • Other Public First Aid Awards

It’s best to also complete annual refresher training as this is strongly advised by the HSE.

Insurance

Trainers will require public liability insurance to gain an approval from awarding bodies but also to protect them in case a member of the public blames you for causing damage or injury. Also on insurance a trainer is advised to take out professional indemnity insurance in case a member of your class accuses you of making a mistake, which they then taught and caused injury. Both of these insurances are around £120 to £140 per year.

Equipment

In first aid you do need some equipment, its more training equipment you require. The below list of equipment is everything you will need:

  • Resus Anne (Manikin) 1 for every 4 in your class (Cost around £150 )
  • AED Defib Trainer, 1 for every 4 in your class (Cost from £50 on eBay)
  • Bandages and Wipes
  • Projector for PowerPoint presentations

First Aid Trainer Courses with Teaching Award

If you don’t already have a teaching award such as PDLSG or the Education and Training Award, then you can attend courses with Abertay International Training, Highfield or City & Guilds etc. For example courses from Abertay provide everything you need just click the link below to become a First Aid Trainer with includes the PDLSG teaching award

  1. Teaching Qualification
  2. Experience or Qualification in First Aid
  3. Insurance as stated above
  4. Equipment as listed above

Accredited First Aid at Work Certifications

Now that you have followed the above and are now qualified as a First Aid Trainer, how do you gain accredited certification.  Abertay, Highfield plus City & Guilds First Aid Trainer Courses are great awards, as they are very good courses, that cover what you need to know in order to become a First Aid Trainer.  Please note, there are companies who offer unaccredited First Aid Trainer certification, however these will not be accepted by any of the awarding bodies so you will not be able to gain any accredited certification from them for the courses you then teach.  The Abertay or Nuco courses will however as they include a separate teaching award as part of the course and included in the costs.

Please remember as a First Aid Trainer you must always have a current First Aid at Work certificate, to teach and assess any first aid.  As soon as your first aid at work certificate expires you can no longer teach or assess any first aid awards until it is renewed.

Once you have all the above, you then need to apply to one of the awarding bodies to apply to become an approved centre so that you can gain accredited first aid certifications for the candidates you then teach. There are many awarding bodies out there but one of the most reasonable for costs is SafeCert Awards. They cost 295 for centre approval with emergency first aid certification at around 6 pounds each. There are also Highfield for centre approval 450 plus vat and certification costs at at around 6 pounds.  With awarding bodies all will require an annual spend and therefore cost you around 250 to 350 per year, but we included SafeCert as there is no annual spend requirement.  Before selecting your awarding body do your research, you can search for awarding bodies for first aid on google for more information.