How to Become a First Aid Trainer

To become a qualified first aid trainer, you must gain an accredited first aid certification.

This article will discuss the qualifications you must meet and the steps to follow. Read on to learn more!

Last reviewed: September 2026 — checked against Resuscitation Council UK Guidelines 2025.

First Aid Trainer Course

Before individuals are recognised as first aid trainers, they must have an entry-level teaching qualification. What does it mean?

The usual route is the Level 3 Award in Education and Training, the Ofqual-regulated teaching qualification that replaced PTLLS. Awarding organisations publish it at 12 credits, typically with 48 guided learning hours and a total qualification time of around 120 hours, so budget for study time as well as classroom days. Exact figures vary a little between awarding organisations, so check the specification for the one you enrol with.

It does not have to be the Level 3 Award in Education and Training. HSE’s guide GEIS3 Selecting a first-aid training provider lists other teaching and assessing qualifications it accepts, including Cert Ed, PGCE, B Ed and M Ed, CTLLS and DTLLS, PTLLS, TQFE, an S/NVQ Level 3 or 4 in training and development, the Level 4 Certificate or Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training, and nursing mentorship qualifications. If you are going to assess candidates as well as teach them, you need a qualification (or a pair of qualifications) that covers both roles.

NOTE: a first aid certificate on its own is not enough. To deliver regulated first aid qualifications on the RQF in England and Wales or the SCQF in Scotland, you need a recognised teaching or assessing qualification alongside your first aid competence.

First Aid Training Qualifications UK

The teaching qualification has to be paired with current first aid competence. GEIS3 says trainers and assessors should demonstrate knowledge and competence in first aid through a current, valid First Aid at Work certificate, or by being registered and licensed as a doctor with the General Medical Council, a nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, or a paramedic with the Health and Care Professions Council.

To teach first aid for adults you’ll need a current Level 3 First Aid at Work Certificate.

To teach first aid for children you’ll need a current Level 3 Paediatric First Aid Certificate.

Equipment

To run your own courses you need enough equipment for every candidate to practise and be assessed. Awarding organisations set their own minimum quantities and learner-to-equipment ratios as part of centre approval, so check the centre requirements for the awarding organisation you work with rather than relying on a generic list. As a starting point you will need:

• Adult CPR manikins, plus child and infant manikins for paediatric courses
• Training AED units
• Bandages/wound dressings
• Manikin wipes and replacement lungs/faces
• Projector or screen for presentations

HSE also expects training organisations to have a sufficient quantity of well-maintained equipment so candidates can complete training and assessment within the required contact hours, and it warns that class sizes above 12 may need additional trainers or assessors if individual candidates are to be trained and assessed properly.

Trainers Insurance

Before becoming a first aid trainer, one should take out professional indemnity insurance.

This is in case a member of your class accuses you of making a mistake that they taught and caused the injury.

You’ll require public liability insurance to gain approval from awarding bodies and protect them in case the public blames them for causing damage or injury.

First Aid at Work Trainer Courses

The usual minimum package for delivering First Aid at Work courses is:

• A current Level 3 Award in First Aid at Work — the three-day FAW course, which HSE expects to run to at least 18 training and assessment contact hours over a minimum of three days.
• A teaching qualification such as the Level 3 Award in Education and Training, or one of the alternatives listed in GEIS3.
• An assessing qualification if you will assess candidates yourself. The Level 3 Award in Understanding the Principles and Practices of Assessment is the common starting point; the Level 3 Award in Assessing Competence in the Work Environment and the Level 3 Award in Assessing Vocationally Related Achievement sit alongside it.

Many providers bundle the teaching and assessing awards into a single combined “train the trainer” programme. That is a delivery choice, not a separate regulated qualification, so ask which awarding organisation certificates each part before you book.

The Level 3 Award introduces teaching and training in various contexts.

In the case of basic emergency care, this will provide the knowledge trainers require in further training or a work environment.

First Aid Train the Trainer Course

The award is recognised for the teaching and assessing of First Aid at Work to the current HSE standards.

Course fees vary widely between providers and by whether the teaching award, the assessing award and the trainer resources are bundled together, so get current quotes rather than working from a headline figure. Ask what is included: the trainer manual, the awarding organisation registration and certification fee, and the separate teaching award are often priced separately.

This accredited trainers program includes trainer resources so that you can teach effectively in the following areas:

• Health & Fire Safety at Work
• Trainer Teaching Practice
• Participation and Groupwork
• Child & Baby Basic Emergency Care Courses

First Aid Instructor Course

There are a number of offered first aid trainer courses. Most of these programs can be completed in about 3-5 days.

They can deliver first aid training through face-to-face and distance learning.

There is no single mandatory “instructor” course. What matters is that you hold current first aid competence plus a recognised teaching or assessing qualification, and that you deliver through a route an employer can rely on. Some trainers also go on to advanced first aid training to widen the subjects they can credibly teach.

You must ensure that these first aid courses are designed to allow you to teach and assess the full range of Level 2 and Level 3 Awards in a range of First Aid qualifications.

It should also include Level 3 Paediatric First Aid training and must be taught in line with the Resuscitation Council UK Guidelines 2025, which training materials have had to comply with since January 2026.

Who Approves First Aid Trainers?

This trips a lot of people up. HSE does not approve, accredit or endorse first aid training providers or trainers. Choosing a competent provider is the employer’s responsibility, and HSE sets out how to make that judgement in GEIS3.

HSE guidance L74 describes the routes a training organisation can take:

• Nationally regulated qualifications from an awarding organisation recognised and regulated by Ofqual in England, the Scottish Qualifications Authority in Scotland, or the Welsh Government in Wales.
• The Voluntary Aid Societies — St John Ambulance, the British Red Cross and St Andrew’s First Aid — which HSE acknowledges as standard-setters for currently accepted first-aid practice.
• An independent training organisation, which may or may not belong to a voluntary accreditation scheme. L74 is explicit that these schemes are not mandatory, but says they can help employers find providers with appropriate content, suitable trainers and assessors, and robust quality assurance.

So joining a voluntary body is a commercial and credibility decision, not a legal requirement. If you go independent, expect employers to run the GEIS3 checklist over you instead.

The Quality Assurance You Will Need in Place

If you set up as a training organisation rather than working for someone else, GEIS3 expects you to have:

• A documented quality assurance plan, with a named person responsible for reviewing the performance of trainers and assessors at least annually. That person must be independent of training delivery, hold a current FAW certificate (or GMC, NMC or HCPC registration), and hold assessing and internal verification qualifications such as the Level 4 Award in the internal quality assurance of assessment processes and practice.
• A documented course evaluation procedure that includes student feedback, and a documented complaints procedure.
• Assessment records for every student, kept for at least three years after the course.
• Certificates that name your organisation and the candidate, state the qualification title, reference the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, give the start date, confirm three-year validity, and confirm teaching was in line with currently accepted first-aid practice. If the training is not FAW or EFAW, or contains extra elements, the certificate has to set those out too.

Delivering Blended Courses

Blended learning — a mix of e-learning and face-to-face teaching — is an accepted way of delivering workplace first aid training under L74. It is not a free pass, though. HSE strongly recommends that the practical elements are assessed by direct observation, and expects providers to allocate enough classroom time for practical learning and assessment, support learners through the technology, prevent identity fraud and assess the e-learning component properly.

There are also completion windows to plan around: where training is delivered in blocks, each block should be no less than two hours, and candidates should finish the course and assessment within roughly 10 weeks for a three-day FAW, six weeks for a two-day FAW requalification and three weeks for EFAW.

Conclusion

So what are you waiting for?

Become a first aid trainer assessor and teach these courses. New trainers can develop skills to help save lives whenever hazards occur in the workplace.

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