This is a summary of the main qualifications available and what some of the terms mean. You can get qualified to deliver all of these, although some may require additional qualifications
Workplace Courses
- Emergency First Aid at Work
- First Aid at Work
- First Aid at Work requalification
Paediatric / School Courses
- Emergency Paediatric First Aid (6 hours)
- Paediatric First Aid (12 hours)
- Forest School First Aid (16 hours)
Outdoor Courses
- Outdoor First Aid (8 hours)
- Outdoor First Aid (16 hours)
- Advanced Outdoor First Aid
- Activity First Aid
- Forest School First Aid (16 hours)
Miscellaneous
- Sports First aid
- Motorbike First Aid
- Martial Arts First Aid
- Bespoke First Aid
In fact there are as many courses as you want as all can be tailored to a particular category (Nanny) or specialism (Anaphylaxis) and marketed as such.
Here is a brief summary of some of the courses – the main ones that are taught regularly and that Businesses need for compliance.
Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW) / First Aid at Work (FAW) / First Aid at Work requalification
First Aid at Work is an 18 hour qualification often (but not always) delivered over three daily 6 hour sessions.
The first 6 hours covers topics such as Action at an Emergency and dealing with the more major emergencies. It can be taught as a standalone course called ‘Emergency First Aid at Work’.
The second part is more geared to medical emergencies in the workplace.
As a Trainer, you can advertise both courses running at the same time, boosting bums on seats – EFAW students just turn up for the first part (6 hours / day 1). Those doing the full FAW turn up for all three days. The only stipulation is that you are not allowed to exceed 12 students per trainer overall – you cannot have 10 EFAW students and 5 FAW students for instance.
Some Clients that have a mixture of FAW staff and EFAW staff will appreciate you combining the courses for them to cut costs.
The Certificates last three years and you need to take the same course again to requalify, however for FAW it is possibly to take the course over 2 days rather than 3 as long as the learner’s existing certificate is still in date (there is a small amount of leeway if it is out of date). The assumption is that less teaching is required.
Emergency Paediatric First Aid (EPFA) / Paediatric First Aid (PFA)
Paediatric First Aid is a 12 hour qualification often (but not always) delivered over two 6 hour sessions.
The first 6 hours covers topics such as Action at an Emergency and dealing with the more major emergencies for children. It can be taught as a standalone course called ‘Emergency Paediatric First Aid’.
The second part is more geared to medical emergencies in the childcare environment..
As a Trainer, this allows you to advertise both courses running at the same time, boosting bums on seats – EPFA students just turn up for the first part (6 hours / 1 day). Those that need the full PFA turn up for the full 12 hours. Note that you are not allowed to exceed 12 students per trainer overall – you cannot have 10 EPFA students and 5 PFA students for instance.
Some Clients that have a mixture of PFA staff and EPFA staff will appreciate you combining the courses for them to cut costs.
Blended courses
A Blended course is one that is taken partly online and partly in a classroom. None of the above can be taken completely online, there is a certain minimum that has to be classroom-based, however it is a good option for some clients as it reduces the time staff are out of the office / classroom.
All of the above courses have their content (Learning Outcomes) publicly defined and if you are delivering one of them you need to Teach and Assess all of the course content to all of the learners to satisfy the HSE or Ofsted (for instance).
A Childcare environment needs staff with appropriate Paediatric First Aid qualifications, but it is also a workplace environment and therefore some staff may also need a First Aid at Work qualification. It is possible to deliver two or more courses at the same tile as long as the Learning Outcomes for both courses are covered – this will usually mean a longer duration course, however it can be more cost-effective for Clients.
Regulated, Accredited and non-Accredited courses
A non-Accredited course is a course that is delivered by an Organisation and that Organisation Certifies it to state that the competence to work to a specified standard has been achieved. Depending on the qualification and due diligence by the Client this may be acceptable.
An Accredited Course is a course that has been recognised by an Authoritative Body that the competence to work to a specified standard has been achieved. This holds more weight than a non-Accredited course due to the reputation of the Authoritative Body.
A Regulated course is one that has been developed by an Authoritative Body and also approved by a recognised Regulator – e.g. Ofqual or SQA. This is evidenced as the course details and the Authoritative Body’s details are listed on the Regulator’s website’s Register of Regulated qualifications.
All three can be a valid qualification, however there is more weight to the Accredited or Regulated certificates. With an internally Certified course the client has to satisfy itself that the training was carried our correctly by competent and qualified trainers. See our Post on Training and Awarding Organisations for more information.
If you wish to deliver an Accredited course you will have to do so through a Authoritative Body (Awarding Organisation).
The HSE and its involvement
Summary
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) no longer Approves courses and Training Providers but it does lay down recommendations for Training Provider requirements and First Aid at Work course content requirements. You need to demonstrate how you meet these requirements if you are going to deliver a course.
Prior to October 2013, the HSE approved Training Providers and also the Qualifications delivered. Only HSE Approved Providers could deliver Workplace courses.
In October 2013, the HSE stopped approving Providers and Qualifications. Clearly this means a reduced workload for the HSE, but it has dressed it up as letting Businesses decide on the level of First Aid provision needed. All Businesses now need to carry out a Risk Assessment at their Workplace(s) to determine First Aid equipment and First Aider requirements and then carry out Due Diligence on any Training Company to ensure that they are suitably qualified and competent to deliver this training.
Ofsted / EYFS and their involvement
Summary
The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) and the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) lay down the criteria for Training Provider requirements and Paediatric First Aid course content requirements that a Company in the childcare environment will need.
Other courses
Apart from the courses previously mentioned, most other courses are generally not Regulated. To be Regulated, they need to be set up and registered with Ofqual/SQA via an Awarding Organisation. There is a cost to this, both in time and money and there may not be the financial justification.
Awarding Organisations do offer additional Accredited courses such as Basic Life Support (BLS), Motorbike and Outdoor First Aid (OFA).
These courses are as tightly defined as the Workplace and Paediatric courses without the regulatory framework overhead.
You can also create and deliver non-Accredited and Bespoke courses, tailored to your Client’s needs. Some Clients will have a Governing Body that sets out First Aid qualifications for its leaders / tutors etc. Make sure that any course that you provide complies with the minimum requirements so that any Certificate that you issue will be valid.
If you are already delivering Regulated or Accredited courses, then the infrastructure that you need to put into place will also support non-Accredited courses. Use this to your advantage rather than thinking “It’s not Accredited, I can skip parts”.
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