What are the benefits of blended first aid training?

If you organise first aid training for an organisation or your own business, you might have heard of something called “blended training”.

So, what is it and what are the benefits?

In short blended training is:

• more flexible for both the individual and anyone who organises training for their staff because it means staff don't have to be tied up in training for long hours at a time

• smarter because it allows for training to be broken up into short periods if required

• friendlier to those who look after staff rosters because it allows greater flexibility for individuals to train one at a time, instead of all doing it together in one big group

• more convenient as it reduces the time spent in a formal training session off-site or on-site

• more time efficient because people can train from home or at work

• better for shift workers because they can train online at 3am if they want to

• more economical as it means less time travelling or being away from work

First Aid & CPR training has traditionally always been done in person because there are so many practical drills and demonstrations that students must show they know how to do before they can be granted a certificate.

This is not surprising when you realise that First Aid & CPR are “real world” skills, not theoretical exercises. When you are called upon to do CPR, you have to know exactly what you are doing and HOW to actually do it, because there will be a real person involved and their life can be in your hands.

This is why First Aid and CPR training has not followed so many other types of training, into the virtual world of fully online training where the student does the course in front of a computer and often never meets the trainer in person.

Blended first aid training - the smarter solution

However, “Blended Training” is a smart solution because it combines the theory part of the training being done online, while the practical exercises and demonstrations are still done in person.

What this means for companies and organisations is that if they are sending their staff off-site to do their training or even if they are doing it on-site, the whole team don’t have to all be in the one place at the one time for up to half a day or more.

With blended training, each team member can do the online component, typically 2 hours or so, in their own workspace or even at home, according to their own schedule. Then they join their workmates for a short 1 or 2 hour in person session either on-site or off-site where they all demonstrate their ability to apply what they have learnt under the supervision of a professional trainer.

This opens up massive flexibility with regards to work rosters and scheduling meaning that you can more easily manage your staff and teams to get or keep them compliant with their first aid and CPR training requirements. Not having to have everyone “take time off” at the same time to do their training takes considerable burden off those in charge of managing staff. If your organisation is experiencing staff shortages this will come as welcome relief.

To discuss how your team could benefit from “blended training” for First Aid and CPR, please contact Katrina at Results First Aid on 1300 661 065. She will organise everything for you to make it as easy as possible for your staff and teams to get the training they need in the most convenient way for you. Or enquire or book via our website at https://www.resultsfirstaid.com/book

Q&A

Q. What is the difference between blended and in-person training?

A. Blended training is where part of the course is done via e-learning online and the rest is done in person. For a CPR course for example, you would do all the theory component online where you learn all about what CPR is, why you do it, when you do it, how you do it, etc.

Then you would attend an in-person training session for an hour or two, where you would demonstrate to one of our trainers that you can practically APPLY all the skills you learnt in your theory training. For example, with CPR training, can you actually perform the required action on a mannikin for the required period of time?

In-person training is where ALL the training takes place in person with a trainer present, usually on-site at our training facility or off-site at a workplace or other location. All theory and practical exercises are conducted in the same session with no online learning involved.

Q. What are the benefits of blended training?

A. More and more individuals and organisations are finding that blended training can bring many benefits.

For individuals doing a blended course means they can complete the first section of the course online in their own time, and often at home if they prefer. Then they only have to visit our training centre for a much shorter period of time to complete the practical aspect of their training.

For companies and organisations, blended training brings a number of benefits. Instead of having to schedule a large group of people to all train at the same time, with all the rostering challenges this brings, employees can complete the online component of their training individually. This means the organisation does not have to have a large number of people unavailable to work for a number of hours as they are “off training”. Blended training also allows for two different ways to complete the in-person component of their training. Staff can attend our training centre in Truganina or we can come to the organisation’s premises to conduct the practical training (minimum of 12 people in a group). Either way, the in-person training component is several hours shorter than if all the training was done face to face. Again this means staff will not have to be rostered off for such long periods of time.

Simply the fact that the online component of the training can be done by the employees at work or after work, without having to leave their premises helps with rostering and scheduling staff.

It also means that if you have a large number of staff who need to complete training, they don’t all have to go off-site to a training facility for hours at the same time, leaving the organisation short-staffed for that period of time. Instead a group of people can all complete their online component of the blended training in their own time and when all have completed, they only have to go off-site for the practical exercises of the training, sometimes for as little as 1 hour. So blended training is very flexible and helps enormously with putting large groups of people through their first aid and CPR training.

Q. Best place to learn first aid skills online with practical sessions in Victoria?

A. Results First Aid is the best place to learn first aid skills online with practical sessions in Melbourne or Victoria. We offer blended training sessions which combine online learning with practical hands-on skills sessions. You can do the online first aid skills learning from home at a time that suits you. Then come to our training centre and complete the practical skills assessment. We have over 4,000 Google 5-star reviews so you know we are the best at it.