Been trying to get onto a FA training course to teach and assess FA for soo many years, I have now given up. The incompetence of just about everybody above me is just incredible. I’ve been booked onto courses that were from previous years, had applications rejected because it had the wrong year on the application form (These are all filled in by the CO, not me), had paperwork “go missing” countless times, had my place cancelled the night before in favour of a uniformed SNCO and more.
Those are just a tiny handful of major incompetences, so am taking 6 months off…
Have a look at NUCO Training - the L3 AET they do as part of the FAW Inst course covers the A1 requirement too due to the modules you undertake - hence you can teach and assess with the one qualification.
The cost of the course is £1000 for a week, but you get the L3, FAW, L3 Oxygen, L3 AED and L2 Anaphylaxis too, enabling you to teach all 4 courses. Overall a great course, my instructor Paul was great and I think the Boss of the company is ex-reg (could be wrong on that).
Seems steep, but actually worth the money as you can then train and assess under their banner from day 1.
Just a quick note - you don’t have to have a full teaching qual to teach the Red Badge to cadets - you just have to have done a Green Badge and have done a cadet or adult MOI course - hence why the St John Ambulance courses are NOT ofqual regulated.
As an aside, I think allowing HeartStart as a minimum qualification for staff is terrible, it doesn’t cover many of the injuries cadets will experience and is designed as a course anyone can teach after only an hour of instruction. EFAW should be the minimum standard and FAW for most.
Quite correct. However, an awarding body (Qualsafe\NOCN\Highfield et al) won’t approve someone to teach ANY QCF first aid courses unless they can prove they’ve delivered theory and practical sessions under a qualified, experienced and approved trainer. Hence why you need to keep a log so that it can be submitted.
True, but on the NUCO course, the students ‘teach’ the FAW syllabus over the first 3 days under instruction from the trainer, doing lessons plans etc, so before you finish the course you have had the experience of teaching the practical and theoretical aspects.
Most awarding bodies will want more than that before letting you loose to teach regulated qualifications. Firstly, you need to actually hold the L3 Education & Training qual before you start teaching first aid as opposed to simply using the first aid lessons as your microteaches for the L3 award. I very much doubt an awarding body would accept them as evidence of being a competent [I]and experienced[/I] first aid trainer.
IF an awarding body [I]did[/I] let someone go off and train minutes after achieving their L3 award, I think they’d have a hard time justifying to Ofqual, exactly why they let it happen. Quite often, reputable awarding bodies will require proof of occupational competence as well as evidence of qualifications and some I know, want to see at least one FAAW renewal. That’s my experience anyway, as I deal with awarding organisations in my day job.
Your description of how NUCO does it tells me that one can have no prior experience of first aid in the workplace (having never held a certificate) and no experience of teaching. Hey presto! two weeks later the learner has achieved the L3 award in Education and a FAAW ticket for the first time and then expect to go out and teach the skill to others. They could - in theory - be requalifying people who’ve held first aid tickets for years and I can imagine the deafening silence when an ‘old hand’ asks questions that the newly-qualified and inexperienced trainer can’t answer…