As an international organisation working with international members across 26 countries, STA recently launched three new international unregulated courses for swimming teachers, pool lifeguards and baby and pre-school teachers. Today, STA is adding to this course portfolio, by introducing a new unregulated International Lifesaving Course for Swimming Teachers.

The new one-day International Lifesaving Course for Swimming Teachers is an unregulated one-day course that has been designed by STA for overseas swimming teachers and teaching assistants who require lifesaving skills as part of their role. The curriculum teaches pool rescue skills, CPR techniques and aquatic first aid so they can act as a rescuer in an aquatic teaching environment.

Claire Brisbourne, Director of Safety Training Awards – STA’s Awarding Organisation, says: “It is a great one-day course that mixes theory with practical elements to provide learners with the knowledge and skills needed to be competent in an aquatic environment.”

The new international courses have been created by STA to offer flexibility for tutors and employers in countries, which do not follow UK legislation, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or professional body requirements.

All the courses are tutor-assessed and have been shaped to offer a high standard of quality training, but by being unregulated, tutors delivering them overseas do not need to be attached to an Approved Training Centre.

Claire added: “Here in the UK we are governed by a multitude of rules and regulations to ensure compliance, which are not applicable in many of the countries where our tutors work. Therefore, we’ve created these courses to ensure a high standard of quality training is delivered, but without all the governance that is required here in the UK.”
“We’ve had a tremendous response to the courses launched so far, because this approach makes the courses more flexible, accessible and cost-effective to deliver – it also supports our aims of promoting and furthering the development of swimming teachers and pool lifeguards around the world,” confirmed Claire.

To support the delivery of all these international courses, e-resources for Tutors and learners are available, which include e-manuals, PowerPoints, assessment sheets, schemes of work, lesson plan templates (for the swimming courses) and guidance documents.

The International Courses must be registered via STA Online and course resources are available to download on STA Online. All existing Swimming, Baby and Pre-school and Pool Lifeguard Tutors will automatically be able to offer the International Course within their discipline.

Further course details and how to deliver the courses can be found here.