On 1st October 2009 the rules regarding training in First Aid changed. Prior to that date any one with a first aid certificate could run the one day course and no check was kept on the standard of training. From 1st October all training in first aid for work is under the control of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). In order to register with the HSE and become an approved trainer there is a lengthy process which has expected costs around £3000, then as an approved trainer you have to pay an inspection fee of £535 roughly once every 3 years. If you only want to run the 1 day Emergency First Aid at work course you can register and become a QCA accredited trainer. The cost of this varies with the awarding body you choose but as a guide will cost about £400 to organise and you then pay an annual fee of between £150 and £300 plus a fee per certificate issued of between £12 and £15.
Chip-Fast Ltd is an accredited provider and therefore has paid HSE for the set up costs and has built into their own costs the cost of inspections. If you become one of our trainers you only have to pay the fees to us which are considerably less than those shown above, and you get a range of benefits – see below.
- Who can become a trainer?
- What do we offer?
- The seminars and courses we run
- Training in First Aid at Work
- Training in other areas of Safety
- Training in Finance
- Earning commission
- What will it cost you?
- Our credibility and benefits we offer
- What do you need to do next?
Who can become a trainer?[Back]
Obviously before we accept individuals onto our list as trainers we need to be satisfied on two counts:
- They know the subject on which they want to train
- They know how to teach that subject.
We check the first by ascertaining from your CV that you have knowledge of the subject but will normally also want to have a discussion with you to check that you have stayed up to date, in particular for first aid training that you own certificate for FAW current. If you either do not have a FAW certificate or it has lapsed we can arrange for you to attend one of our courses.
We check your ability to train in two separate ways. First we check from your CV whether you have done any “teacher training” or whether you have “accredited prior learning”. If you can satisfy that criteria we will accept you on a provisional basis but will then attend a session on a course that you are teaching and assess your performance.
For those with no experience of teaching we can offer a training course on how to train.
What do we offer? [Back]
- First aid training
For those interested in providing training in first aid we provide lesson plans, handouts, power point presentations, and course registers. We will also register you on our list of approved trainers with the HSE and will cover the cost of any HSE inspection. We will also issue the certificates for those who pass and keep the records of all those who attended and the record of whether they pass or fail.
We do not provide candidates though we may at times be able to offer you work on one of our own courses. We normally do not offer any equipment nor do we arrange venues, but we can offer books possibly at prices cheaper than you would pay through our membership of professional bodies and bulk discounts.
You need to notify us of those who attend any course you run, their names and addresses and the result so that we can issue certificates.
After 2.5 years we will send a reminder to those people that their certificate is due for renewal but unless you decline the offer we would expect you to run the refresher or renewal course. We are merely sending out reminders to try and help generate more work for you
- Other safety training
The next section shows the courses we currently run though these are regularly up-dated. If you wish to run any of these we will again provide lesson plans, handouts, power point presentations, and course registers.
We will also for all courses provide Certificates which can be used by your candidates to prove Continual Professional Development (CPD).
- Finance training.
If you are qualified in any area of finance for the seminars we run we can provide lesson plans, handouts, power point presentations, and course registers. We will also for all courses provide Certificates which can be used by your candidates to prove Continual Professional Development (CPD).
The seminars and courses we run [Back]
| Course | Duration |
| Health & Safety Courses | |
| First Aid At Work | 3 days (18 hours) |
| First Aid At Work Refresher Course | 2 days (12 hours) |
| Emergency First Aid At Work | 1 day (6 hours) |
| Paediatric First Aid | 2 days (12 hours) |
| Managing First Aid At Work | half day |
| Managing Safety At Work | 1 day |
| Writing A Risk Assessment | half day |
| Working Safely | half day |
| AED Competent User | half day |
| Manual Handling | half day |
| Fire Awareness | half day |
| DSE Regulations (Display Screen Equipment) | half day |
| Lone Working | half day |
| Manual Handling for Carers | half day |
| Manual Handling Patients | half day |
| Safet Handling of Medication | 1 day (6 hours) |
| Finance Courses | |
| Understanding PAYE | half day |
| Understanding Year End Accounts | 1 day |
| Dealing with HMRC | half day |
| Using your accountant | half day |
| Credit control and interest rates | half day |
| Writing a business plan | half day |
| Controlling personal finance | half day |
We can also provide a distance learning course for the International Association of Book-keepers Diploma in Financial Management for small firms. This covers Record keeping; VAT;PAYE;End year accounts; basic taxation, introduction to costing, credit control, and business plans.
Training in First Aid At Work [Back]
If you want to be a trainer for either the 3 day or the 1 day course then you must be on the trainers database of an accredited training organisation. You must also hold a current FAW certificate and be qualified to teach either by experience or because you hold a teaching qualification.
The course must cover the topics laid down by HSE and the class size is limited to a maximum of 12 people per trainer. Note there is no leeway on this number as the advised maximum is 10 people but allows for some booking not turning up, so you can book 12 places and if they all turn up that is still permissible.
Assessment must be made on the 3 day course by 2 assessors who have not taken part in the training of that course, and who are qualified to assess. If the course has 6 or fewer on it then one assessor is adequate. The one day course is assessed by the trainer on a continuous assessment basis.
The 3 day course has a minimum contact time of 18 hours but can be longer. Note this is actual time under instruction and does not include lunch or tea breaks. Similarly the one day course is a minimum of 6 hours contact time.
As from 1st October 2009 both these courses are recognised by HSE as valid for work purposes. To enable HSE to monitor training organisations details of all courses must be kept to include Names and addresses of those on the course, names of the trainers and assessors. If more than 1 trainer - which trainer taught which sessions, and finally the result for each student.
Paediatric First Aid also has a minimum contact time of 12 hours
Training in other areas of safety [Back]
The duration of the other health and safety courses shown is the time that Chip-Fast advises, but there is no regulation governing them. The lesson plans and power point presentations that we supply are based on these times.
Training in Finance [Back]
For those wanting to train in the financial area you should either from qualifications or practical experience have sufficient knowledge to cover the subject area and any questions that might arise from the students. Once again the material we supply is geared to the hours shown for our courses and seminars but as there is no legislation you can make the time shorter or longer.
Earning commission [Back]
You may be quite happy teaching one aspect of the courses we offer but do not feel up to teaching in other areas. So for example you might be quite happy with basic first aid but not want to teach paediatric, or perhaps do not feel competent to teach AED competent user.
However in talking to clients you may find that they are interested in either attending a course or seminar which you do not want to teach. If there are at least 6 people who want a seminar or course then Chip-Fast will run the course including arranging the venue and trainer, and will pay you commission of between 15 and 20% of the fees collected. The actual percentage depends on the number you get on each seminar. In general the maximum we will accept is 15 and the minimum is 6.
Currently we charge £75 per student for a 0.5 day course and £125 per student for a full day course. These fees cover venue and tea/coffee and for 1 day courses a buffet lunch. If a client wishes to run the course on their premises and will provide the venue free then we will give a course price which normally runs out at around £60 for half day and £100 for full day. So if you managed to arrange a 1 day course with ten people on it the fees collected would be £1250 and you would get 18% commission or £225.
What will it cost you? [Back]
Chip Fast Ltd charges a new trainer a flat fee of £200 per year. This covers our costs in coming out to “inspect” the standard of training being given. Should we feel the standard is below the level we would accept we will discuss with the trainer how to improve and carry out a second visit at no extra cost. If still unacceptable then we will offer further training at cost or agree to go our separate ways. On top of that Chip-Fast issues certificates for all courses, where we have external credit we will indicate this on the certificate. So for example all our one day and 3 day first aid courses carry the information that we are a provider licensed and approved by the HSE. For each certificate issued we charge £5.00. These fees cover all the benefits mentioned.
CPD certificates are issued for all other seminars at £3.00 per person.
In general we ask trainers to let us know which courses they want to train and we will then supply the lesson plans etc for those courses, but we see no point in issuing full lesson plans power point etc to trainers for courses they do not want to teach. For each course you want to teach we will also advise you of any books we can obtain and the price they would be, but we do not insist that you either use a specific book or that you must buy them from us.
The initial fee of £200 must be paid before you run your first course. Certificate fees are payable within 2 weeks of the certificates being issued. We will issue the certificates within 48 hours of being notified they are needed. They will normally be sent to you to distribute, but exceptionally we can send them to the individual students.
Our credibility and the benefits we offer [Back]
The company is accredited by the HSE and licensed to run both First Aid at Work and Emergency First Aid at work courses. One of our related companies is also an accredited provider of book-keeping and finance courses for the International Association of Book-keepers (IAB) and through them we can provide the courses for the IAB qualifications.
The Directors themselves have impressive qualifications.
Ian Irwin is the finance Director and holds both a degree in Economics and also professional qualifications in accountancy and as a Company Secretary. He has spent over 20 years practising first aid at work and has taught all aspects of finance and accounting. He is also a past national chairman of both the Institute of Financial Accountants and the International Association of Book-keepers
Harry Keown Harry is from Northern Ireland and has served in the Police service in both N. Ireland and England for 30 years. During his service he specialised as a trainer in tactical, strategic and safety training courses. Whilst involved with first aid training within the Police service he was awarded both Serving Brother and secondly Officer Brother ranks in the Order of St. John.
During his service he served an attachment with the Commonwealth Office and served overseas in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) on the approach to and following independence.
Following retirement he formed a training company focussing on health and safety and security related training. He trades independently providing training in First Aid, Defibrillation, Personal Safety, and general Health & Safety including Fire Safety, Manual Handling, Risk Assessment and other related courses.
Paul Stedman is currently the Chair of both the Paediatric First Aid Association and the European First Aid Authority (the new brand name for the Association of Independent First Aid at Work training Organisations). He also runs another highly successful first aid training company
Stuart Fellows has been a involved in the administration of training companies for over 13 years.
This means that we can offer practical advice to all our trainers not just on the teaching aspects of running seminars, but also on the necessary requirements to keep track of the financial aspects of self employment. Our certificates carry our accreditation from HSE and IAB as appropriate which makes them respected in the market place.
What do you need to do next? [Back]
Simply get in touch; Call us on 07583018369, email info@chipfast.co.uk or use the form on the Contact Us page.
