How do I become or qualify as a Fire Safety Trainer? The qualifications required to teach accredited fire safety awards and become a fire safety instructor have changed over the last couple of years.  You can no longer teach accredited fire safety with a fire safety trainer award, as this will not be accepted by any of the UK awarding bodies.

Teaching Qualification

First and foremost if you want to be a trainer you will need to have an entry-level teaching qualification. The PDLSG – Planning and Delivering Learning Sessions to Groups Award or the ETA – Level 3 Award in Education and Training qualification gives the teaching award accepted by all awarding bodies.

This course is nationally accredited and by its conclusion will allow the successful candidate to teach any subject they have experience in.

Fire Safety Qualification

Ok, so you now have a teaching qualification either PDLSG or ETA that proves your competence as a trainer. What’s next is to match it up with some relevant experience. The easiest way to do this is to obtain the Level 3 Health and Safety Award, but you can also qualify with Fire Safety CPD or additional Fire Safety E-Learning on top of the fire safety trainer award. Holding the teaching qualification and current Fire Safety experience will allow you to teach the following courses:

• Fire Safety Awareness
• Fire Warden Courses
• Level 1 or 2 Fire Safety Awards

It’s best to also complete the fire safety award first to gain experience.

Insurance

Trainers should take out public liability insurance in case a member of the public blames you for causing damage or injury. Alongside professional indemnity insurance in case a member of the public/client accuses you of making a mistake within your work. Both cost about £120 per year. Best to stay away from live fire demonstrations as its a high risk as well as very costly for insurance.

Equipment

You will need some basic fire safety equipment to be able to provide your own courses. The below list of equipment is everything you will need:

• Fire Extinguisher for demonstration
• Fire Safety PowerPoint (free on trainer courses)
• Projector for Powerpoint presentations

Fire Safety Trainer Courses with Teaching Award

If you don’t have a teaching award one of the cheapest 2 days courses from Abertay provide everything you need just click the link below to become an IFE approved Fire Safety trainer with includes the PDLSG teaching award

1. Teaching Qualification
2. Fire Safety experience (or professional exemption)
3. Insurance
4. Equipment

Accredited Fire Safety Certifications

Once you have all the above, you then need to apply to one of the awarding bodies to apply to become an approved centre so that you can gain accredited fire safety certifications for the candidates you then teach. There are many awarding bodies out there but one of the most reasonable for costs is SafeCert Awards. They cost 195 for centre approval with fire safety or fire warden certification at around 5 pounds each.