Instructor Courses Articles

Thank you for your interest in Instructor Courses. We hope you enjoy these articles that discuss some important issues in our industry.

Female skins for PractiMan CPR manikins

PractiMan, a leading manufacturer of medical and training manikins, has recently released a new product line of female CPR manikin skins. These innovative skins are designed to improve the accuracy and realism of CPR training for female patients while also addressing the need for gender diversity in medical simulation.

ProTrainings Centre levels

If you want to upgrade your centre status to Bronze, Silver or Gold you will need to have read the following carefully, then see what level you wish to apply for. Check that you meet the criteria then email your request in detail to support@protrainings.uk. You must have the approved centre widget and others on your website then once approved the centre logo will change automatically to the next level. Please make sure you state your full contact details and the level you wish to apply for and why. We will process applications as quickly as possible but we will prioritise general support so please do not email once you have applied. We estimate it could take up to two weeks to upgrade your centre. Once approved, tell your customers and post over your social media.

New Year sale

Special offer on equipment prices

A guide to life-saving first aid

In a perfect world, giving a real person CPR would be as easy as blowing up a balloon and pushing down the contents of an overflowing bin, to cram in yet another bag of rubbish before collection day. No panic. No sudden rush of adrenaline.

ITG New Website Launched

ITG have now launched their new website. It has been set up to provide a wide range of courses and information as clearly and concisely as possible.

QCF to RQF changes guide for regulated qualifications

As you aware that in 2015 Ofqual changed the way in which regulated qualifications are described. The main details of these changes are: The change from the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) which included the sharing of units and structures by different Awarding Organisations to the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) and the closure of the shared unit bank.

New first aid equipment price list and trade price list available

We have produced a new catalogue and trade price list for instructors and businesses including some of our 1000 plus products we sell.  If you would like a copy you can download it from your instructor dashboard or email us on support@protrainings.eu with your name and address, and we will post a copy to you.

Did you know that you could do the following, seeing as you are a centre with ProTrainings?

ProTrainings instructors are given them most comprehensive management dashboard of any certifying body with a host of features to help you manage and develop your business.  Below are just some of the features available to ProTrainings instructors and centres.  If you would like any help, contact us and we can help you get the most out of your centre. 

Guest Speaker from Celox Haemostatic Dressings attending Birmingham Conference

We are pleased to announce that Toni Murch MC Para will be speaking at our Birmingham conference on Friday 15th July. He will be covering the modules on Catastrophic Bleeding. This information will also be fully covered on the Colchester conference on the 28th July.

New forms for ProTrainings and Regulated Qualifications

We have updated many of our forms for ProTrainings and Regulated qualifications to directly link them with the learning outcomes to make mapping easier. To support these new forms we have added mapping documents which are under a separate tab.

Instructor Business Hint 14 - Keep up to Date

As an instructor it is vital that you keep up to date and you keep current. The ProTrainings system will remind you of what you need to do and it will keep your Portfolio of Evidence up to date but you will need to check that you have added everything. You can edit your portfolio to check that it includes all of your qualifications and experience. Also you need to add manually any course you have delivered that is not certified through ProTrainings. Keeping an up to date Portfolio is a requirement for all instructors.

Instructor Business Hint 13 - Use Free Student First Aid to Develop your Business

Student first aid is our free video online course which is available to all children. It is being used in many schools, clubs, organisations and families to teach basic first aid to children. The course does not just have to be given to schools but it can also be given to businesses to give out free to their staff, This can be a good way of giving something to a business and then maybe they will consider you for the rest of their training.

Instructor Business Hint 12 - Protect and Promote your Business

Now you have built your business, take some time to make sure you protect it. There are many things you can do to keep your business safe. The first one is business insurance. ProTrainings and ITG Instructor Training have been insured through Marchant McKechnie One Solution Insurance who have provided and excellent service over several years. If you are interested you can obtain a quote online, quickly and simply. If you prefer you can call them but mention ITG Instructor training for the best deal.

Instructor Business Hint 11 - Regulated qualifications

In most cases businesses do not require the courses you deliver to be a Regulated Qualification, occasionally they do especially where funding is available. In addition to the ProTrainings qualifications you offer, you can if necessary deliver a qualification that is Regulated through ProTrainings and Training Qualifications UK. If you do need to provide regulated qualifications you will need an additional level of approval and you need to be aware that there are additional rules for example you have to issue the certificates even if the customer has not paid you for your training. Some qualifications will also be more expensive. If you are or wish to offer regulated qualifications you have to be careful with the wording used on your website. Guidance is available from our compliance department.

Instructor Business Hint 10 - Keep compliant and use right forms

It is very important to use all of the required forms for the course you are delivering. We have made accessing the forms for each course as easy as we possibly can. The forms can be downloaded from your instructor documents section or the best way to make sure you have the right documents for each course is to create the class and then select the class forms, this way you can be sure that you have the right course paperwork, you can also download the course powerpoint from the class and information about the course. On some courses will also pre-populate some of the forms with standard details of the class.

Instructor Business Hint 9 - Social Media

Nearly everyone uses social media in some form or another and businesses that want to succeed and engage customers, need to start using social media to market their business. Social media links are also a very important tool in helping your website optimisation. There are many different social media websites you can register with and they are all free. Social media accounts should be integrated into your website, for example twitter feeds, tweet buttons and Facebook follows are equally as important.

Instructor Business Hint 8 - List Courses and be Found

As a ProTrainings centre you have free access to an online booking and marketing system that many businesses would pay a considerable monthly fee to use. This system was designed to help our trainers to market their courses and maximise earning potential. The system works most effectively when instructors list courses up to 12 months in advance as this dramatically increases the chance of the actual courses you are listing coming up on search engines such as Google.

Instructor Business Hint 7 - Answer your Phone, Help your Customers Contact You

Instructors often ask how they can deal with enquiries and calls when they are teaching. Answering calls when teaching is not possible and if you are not lucky enough to have someone who can deal with potential customer enquiries you can miss opportunities and lose potential leads. The solution we found many years ago when we were in the same position was to use an answering service. We still use a PA answering service to deal with out of office hours calls and as an overflow with excellent success.

Instructor Business Hint 6 - Have a effective Website and Leaflets

All businesses recognise that a good website is vital to promote their business. Many customers will search for a course using a mobile or tablet device, if your potential customers cannot easily navigate your site from these devices, you may be losing business. If you would like to check to see if your site is mobile friendly go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ and enter your website address.

Instructor Business Hint 5 - Day rate work

ProTrainings provides an additional means for instructors to find work through the day rate system. This system is simply providing your services as a trainer for other instructors or delivering training courses to national contracts. Day rate work is not for everybody but it is a very useful way of earning extra money and gaining more experience in teaching.

Instructor Business Hint 4 - Look at non first aid subjects

Offering a wider range of course can help you to increase your turnover. By gaining qualifications in non-first aid subjects such as Food Hygiene or Health and Safety, you will be able to market more courses to your existing customers which is often easier than finding new customers for first aid training.

Instructor Business Hint 3 - Sell online courses

Online training is not designed to be a replacement to classroom training but does expand the number of courses you can offer to your customers. If a customer wants to complete some of their training online, you may as well earn money from the sale. We have made it easy for you to sell online training, join the instructors who are already earning hundreds of pounds per month in commission.

Instructor Business Hint 2 - Improve and Increase Classroom Training

When you teach you need to make the experience the best you can for your customers, it is also an opportunity to tell them about other courses you offer to help you to gain more referrals and repeat bookings. Consider a printed leaflet providing details about other courses you can provide and the free dashboard they get from ProTrainings. They will then know where to go for the free downloads and student manual and will also be able to register for the weekly video email refresher.

Instructor Business Hint 1 - Add Widgets to your Website and Upload your Logo and Photo

Your ProTrainings dashboard has many features built in to help your market your business. Uploading your logo to your instructor dashboard will ensure that it appears on all ProTrainings qualification certificates. Make sure the logo is of good quality to ensure that it looks professional on the final printed certificate. A good general rule is that if the logo looks poor on the dashboard it will look poor on the printed certificate.

Embed your ProCourses listings and your star rating on your website to take online bookings

Do not forget, from your instructor dashboard, you can embed code in your website to then have all your courses listed automatically for the future on your web page. You can then have online booking on your site and manage your courses simply and easily from you instructor dashboard.

More features being added to the instructor dashboard

We are adding new features to the instructor dashboard to make course planning easier. We have already added a button so that you directly download the course PowerPoint from the class page. We have also added an information box where you can see course information like manikins, rations and notes. These boxes are being updated over the next few weeks to give more information. If you need to know what you have to do when running a course, create the class then all the forms needed, powerPoints and course information is in one place. - See more at: http://www.instructorblogs.co.uk/blog/more-features-being-added-to-the-instructor-dashboard/#sthash.L1ODyTwa.dpuf

Need a website for your business?

We have been asked about where can you get a website for the first aid and training business. FAI websites offer website hosting and responsive website design for first aid instructors and companies.

Day rate work – Instructors needed

We will soon be launching a new portal on the ProTrainings instructor dashboard for day rate work and this will replace the blog that we use at the moment as some instructors have problems with accessing emails and updates. We hope to launch this very soon.

Embed your ProCourses listings and your star rating on your website to take online bookings

Do not forget, from your instructor dashboard, you can embed code in your website to then have all your courses listed automatically for the future on your web page. You can then have online booking on your site and manage your courses simply and easily from you instructor dashboard. You can also have your star rating listed as well showing the customer feedback on the courses you have taught and the video of the week

Are you 2015 compliant?

Are you 2015 compliant? Its now three months until the new Skills for Health rules come in to force on the 1st October 2015 and many of our instructors are already compliant or finishing the unit one of the assessing qualification where they need it. If you have not yet started getting compliant you need to look at this as soon as possible. If you have or are completing the Award in Education and Training then you will be compliant so the only thing you need to do is to finish the course and gain the certificate by 1st October this year.

More features being added to the instructor dashboard

We are adding new features to the instructor dashboard to make course planning easier. We have already added a button so that you directly download the course PowerPoint from the class page.

Create a free training portfolio with your ProTrainings course login

We have added a feature that creates and keeps a training portfolio direct from your ProTrainings student login page. It is important to keep a training portfolio to track and prove your training and CPD. With this new feature, you can add any existing training that you have and experience and the courses you take though ProTrainings either as online blended or direct with a ProTrainings approved instructor nationally are automatically added to your portfolio.