Royal Life Saving provides lifeline for Community Trainers

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the suspension of Royal Life Saving WA’s face to face vocational training courses in late March, it left hundreds of our faithful community trainers with a significantly reduced ability to earn income. These trainers provide a vital service across the Western Australian community each year, furthering our cause of providing access to first aid and water safety education for all.

Royal Life Saving WA Community Trainer Coordinator, Francesca Amoroso, says during the time our face-to-face courses were unable to run we tried to keep the trainers engaged in other ways. “Many of our trainers completed Professional Development while they were unable to train, to keep their industry knowledge up to date and get ready for requalification time.” During the 2019/20 financial year we provided the trainers with 26 online Professional Development opportunities to enhance their skills, and amongst the group a total of 1344 of these courses were completed.

As the state’s COVID-19 restrictions are slowly eased and our courses can restart, we are now working hard to assist our community trainers in getting back to the important service they provide. We’ve given a $17,000 lifeline to these trainers, by offering a 50% discount on their trainer fees for the new financial year and deferring the payment of this fee for six months until January 2021, making it easier for them to restart their business.

Royal Life Saving WA engages 418 Aquatic Trainers, 80 First Aid Trainers and 68 Heart Beat Club trainers across WA. During the 2019/20 financial year they taught 1155 courses and assessed 6,861 participants in Bronze Medallion, CPR, Provide First Aid, Heart Beat Club, Grey Medallion and Aquatic Rescue courses.

They make a significant contribution to Royal Life Saving WA’s work, and we would not be able to provide vital training in every corner of our state without their faithful service. We’d like to thank them for their continued commitment to our organisation through this difficult time and look forward to seeing them working at full capacity again over the coming months as we work together to teach lifesaving skills!