Skill Development Courses (SDC)

[croppermj]

Does anyone know how much these courses are? In particular i) First Aid, ii) Lifesaver Award and iii) Oxygen Administration.

BSAC.com states £16 fee plus "regional costs" - what are the regional costs?

Although, at this point in time, I don't know whether or not my club run any of these courses. I just have a keen interest in First Aid (being a British Red Cross First Aider) and wish to 'crossover' these skills to diving.

Thanks
Matt

[Edward]

Does anyone know how much these courses are? In particular i) First Aid, ii) Lifesaver Award and iii) Oxygen Administration.

BSAC.com states £16 fee plus "regional costs" - what are the regional costs?

Although, at this point in time, I don't know whether or not my club run any of these courses. I just have a keen interest in First Aid (being a British Red Cross First Aider) and wish to 'crossover' these skills to diving.

Thanks
Matt

Hi Matt,

If you look here (http://www.bsac.com/core/core_picker/download.asp?id=9854&filetitle=Acceptable+alternatives+to+BSAC+SDCs) and scroll down to Diver First Aid you will see the courses BSAC recognise as equivalents, unfortunately your British Red Cross First Aider is not mentioned.

Regards

Edward

[croppermj]

Hi Matt,

If you look here (http://www.bsac.com/core/core_picker/download.asp?id=9854&filetitle=Acceptable+alternatives+to+BSAC+SDCs) and scroll down to Diver First Aid you will see the courses BSAC recognise as equivalents, unfortunately your British Red Cross First Aider is not mentioned.

Regards

Edward

Thanks Edward, strange that they accept an equivelant course of less than 6 hours of non-resuscitation but not my 5 day First Aid at Work course - although it was done by the British Red Cross, my certificate states that it complies with HSE etc. I have to renew it every 4 years with a 2 day refresher. It does say though that if you have another qualification not listed, you can submit it for consideration.

[Janos]

Thanks Edward, strange that they accept an equivelant course of less than 6 hours of non-resuscitation but not my 5 day First Aid at Work course - although it was done by the British Red Cross, my certificate states that it complies with HSE etc. I have to renew it every 4 years with a 2 day refresher.

I think you're misreading the table. Any FAAW course with more than 6 hours of non-resus First Aid is acceptable. Less than 6 hours of FAAW is NOT acceptable.

My 4 day St. Johns course was acceptable.

But if you scan in your qualification and email it to HQ you'll get a quick reply. The forums are great for opinions, but not for a definitive response.

Janos

[Edward]

But if you scan in your qualification and email it to HQ you'll get a quick reply. The forums are great for opinions, but not for a definitive response.

Janos

Fully support this.

Edward

[Gareth]

Does anyone know how much these courses are? In particular i) First Aid, ii) Lifesaver Award and iii) Oxygen Administration.

BSAC.com states £16 fee plus "regional costs" - what are the regional costs?

Although, at this point in time, I don't know whether or not my club run any of these courses. I just have a keen interest in First Aid (being a British Red Cross First Aider) and wish to 'crossover' these skills to diving.

Thanks
Matt

Matt

To run any of the SDC's, either in the region or in your own branch, you need to purchase the course packs, for First Aid for Divers the course pack is £16.

In addition to the course pack the region (or branch) will have to pay for;


materials required for the course

a venue

potentially instructor expenses

any other costs

These costs are what is refered to as regional expenses.

Generally the region (or branch) will give you a fixed fee for the complete course.

See here (http://www.bsac.org/page/704/regional-events.htm#top) for SDC's in your region. FAD = £35 22 November, O2 = £20-£35 26 October

Gareth

[croppermj]

Fully support this.

Edward

Many thanks. Will do.:)

[croppermj]

Matt

To run any of the SDC's, either in the region or in your own branch, you need to purchase the course packs, for First Aid for Divers the course pack is £16.

In addition to the course pack the region (or branch) will have to pay for;

materials required for the course
[/LIST[LIST]
]a venue

potentially instructor expenses

any other costs

These costs are what is refered to as regional expenses.

Generally the region (or branch) will give you a fixed fee for the complete course.


Gareth

Thanks Gareth. I suppose I'm better off finding out if any of my club instructors are qualified to do either of these courses and then purchase the training pack.

[Gareth]

Matt

I would ask your training officer if the branch plans to run the SDC's you are interested in, you could also offer to do find out who else is interested within the branch.

Remember some SDC's required 'approved' instructors. Also, it 'can' be more expensive to run a course in branch than attending a regional course. As an example a classroom for a day for two students works out more expensive than a classroom for 20 students!

One other point, regional SDC's expose you to different ideas & different experiences. Attending regional courses is a good way of seeing different solutions to a problem than you are used too.

One of my branches strenghts & weaknesses is that we can & do run most of the SDC's in branch. The problem is that although branch members get the opportunity to participate in most of the SDC's, there is a real risk of only learning the 'SISAC way', one of the things I enjoy is assisting other branches or regionally on SDC's this gives me the opportunity to see different approaches.

Their is also the potential to run a SDC sharing the resources of a local branch.

Cheers

Gareth

[croppermj]

Thanks Gareth, to be honest, I've only been diving 6 months - qualified as Ocean Diver a couple of months back, now moved on to Sport Diver, only 20 or so dives under my belt and basically, I just like studying and learning new things - I'm a 38 year old lawyer who is still studying, not stopped yet since leaving school - I just love to learn and given that this is my new 'hobby', if I can call it that, I want to soak up as much theory and practical education as I can.

[Uberloin]

Thanks Edward, strange that they accept an equivelant course of less than 6 hours of non-resuscitation but not my 5 day First Aid at Work course - although it was done by the British Red Cross, my certificate states that it complies with HSE etc. I have to renew it every 4 years with a 2 day refresher. It does say though that if you have another qualification not listed, you can submit it for consideration.

The First Aid course should be useful, but it may not feature first aid that is specific to diving problems. (e.g. treating DCS and DCI and also rescues from the bottom which is, literally speaking 'first' aid.)

Have you done oxygen administration? This *could* count towards your Dive Leader qualification, but as Janos put so well: Forums are great for opinions, but not a definitive response.

Best of Luck! It's a great skill you have and maintain!

Charles

[JamesW]

I think you're misreading the table. Any FAAW course with more than 6 hours of non-resus First Aid is acceptable. Less than 6 hours of FAAW is NOT acceptable.

My 4 day St. Johns course was acceptable.

But if you scan in your qualification and email it to HQ you'll get a quick reply. The forums are great for opinions, but not for a definitive response.

Janos

The wording is wrong and misleading, the wording * Any FAAW course with more than 6 hours of non-resus First Aid is acceptable. Less than 6 hours of FAAW is NOT acceptable*. Theres no such course.

[Tristan Green]

The wording is wrong and misleading, the wording * Any FAAW course with more than 6 hours of non-resus First Aid is acceptable. Less than 6 hours of FAAW is NOT acceptable*. Theres no such course. If you are going to quote the right wording I wouldn't use the post by Janos.

Here's what it says in the document:

BSAC SDC Title - First Aid For Divers

Acceptable Alternatives -
UK Defence Diving School First Aid Course
Professional qualifications held by Nurse & Paramedics
HSE Commercial Divers - all grades; former HSE Diving First Aid Courses
Any HSW First Aid at work course that includes 6 hours + of non-Resuscitation First Aid
DAN Emergency First Responder
Navy MDT Dept. of SMOPS - First Aid for Diving Operations Course
RNLI Mobile Training Unit First Aid

Not Acceptable -
HSW First Aid at Work short courses - less than 6 hours duration of non-Resuscitation First Aid

Make of that what you will - which course doesn't exist?

Cheers,
Tristan

[barteh]

regional fees dont usually add up to much.
Ive completed my O2 adminisatration and the first aid.

I recall the regional fees to be around £5/£6, basically the petrol/food of the course leader.
It also actively encourages you to get more people involved from your own club, the more people there, the cheaper it is :)

[JamesW]

Not Acceptable -
HSW First Aid at Work short courses - less than 6 hours duration of non-Resuscitation First Aid


Theres no such course yet but there will be in 2009.
The 4 day HSE FAW course is being dropped to 3 days.

[Ron Evans]

The point of this course is NOT just to teach you first aid, but to show you how to use dive kit for that purpose. DCI, etc is not part of the course as such, but is covered in Dive Leader and Oxygen Admin Courses.

Your FAW courses do not use dive kit, and will not therefore be as useful as you would want.

From a student point of view, this course is one of the better ones, as it is a lot of fun, especially when you come to use dive kit on each other.

Enjoy the course (and smile smugly when they talk about the stuff you know from FAW).

Ron
Approved First Aid for Divers Instructor