As a British business owner, do you feel there’s a lack of safety awareness in your organization? Is your business at risk of frequent accidents due to its operations? If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to both, it’s time to take safety into your hands and better your workplace.
One way to do this is through first aid training for workers. First aid is the first medical assistance given to an injured or sick person before they access full medical treatment.
But how will you train your workers on first aid? There are first aid training courses available in which you can enrol your workers. With the many options available, how will you know the best course to choose?
Here’s what to look for in a first-aid training course:
- An Ideal Instructor
An instructor will walk your team through first aid courses in Birmingham or nearby. It’s important to get a suitable teacher to ensure your workers get the best training.
A suitable instructor is one qualified for the job. They should have certifications to prove their proficiency in the field. Experience is also essential; it allows for skill perfection and mastery. Therefore, your chosen instructor should have offered first-aid training courses for many years – the more years, the better.
The ideal instructor should have the right resources to effectively take your workers through the training. These resources are the training team and technological equipment. The training team should be qualified and adequate in number to meet your needs. With technological resources, the instructor should have the right equipment and tools, such as manikins, to teach the course.
- Look At The Skills Gained From A Course
As stated in the introduction, you can learn many first-aid skills. These skills include but aren’t limited to wound care, choking, handling broken limbs, fainting, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR.)
Picking a particular first aid training option is based on what you and your staff need to learn. For a business, its safety risks and gaps in employee knowledge should guide choice. Using a training analysis template can help you identify where your employees are struggling and what they might need extra training for. In addition, look at what injuries are likely to occur. Fire is a high risk for many enterprises. Therefore, selecting a first-aid training course related to fires, such as dealing with burns, is recommended.
Lastly, it’d be helpful to find a course that offers all the training you need under one roof instead of seeking several courses from different training providers.
- Factor In Learning Flexibility
Flexibility is a concept the public is adopting in the workplace. You should also consider it in your chosen first aid training course.
With flexibility, you offer convenience to your workers, such that they learn when they best see fit.
There are different aspects to consider under flexibility. One is the location. Where will the training take place? Will it be in your offices, or will your workers have to visit the instructor’s premises physically? The course should offer both options, especially if the course will take several weeks to complete. Your workers will have the opportunity to choose the best learning option based on their circumstances.
Flexibility extends to the training schedule as well. Will the lessons be during specific times, or is there freedom of choice? Here, a worker who’s held up with family duties after work can decide to finish a lesson at night when there are no distractions.
Lastly, the first aid training course should have offline and online access to learning material. Some workers might not have strong internet connections, especially if the training is virtual. Offline course material will come in handy for them.
As you adopt learning flexibilities in the first-aid training course, it’d help to set timeframes within which all workers must have completed it. You want to avoid a situation where some workers take quite a long time to finish a course.
- Affordability
As a business, the main aim is to minimize costs to avail money for profits. Based on this, you don’t want to spend a fortune on first aid training. Nonetheless, office safety and employee health are important, and first aid training is essential. Affordability is the balance you need to avoid spending too much while getting an essential service.
The best way of achieving affordability is by comparing the fee costs of different providers. Providers will offer similar training services at different costs, hence the need for comparison. Be sure to settle for an amount you’ll pay comfortably without affecting other aspects of your business.
As you seek affordability, getting value for your money is also important. Ensure the amount you pay is equivalent to the services you’ll get from the training course. You shouldn’t pay for more, yet you’re receiving less.
Conclusion
This discussion has highlighted the importance of first aid skills in the workplace. Your workers will know what to do during emergencies when a colleague requires medical assistance.
Yet your team will only acquire first aid skills by undergoing training. The discussion has further guided you on what to look for in first aid courses. Be sure to implement the guidelines for a thorough and practical training course for your workers.