14/03/2024
I’ve noticed a pattern emerging when having conversations with local businesses. Very early on I will get asked “how much do you charge?”, which is perfectly valid; the biggest aim of most businesses is to keep down costs.
Once the conversation develops and I dig a bit deeper into how they currently do things, it quickly becomes apparent that one of two scenarios is usually playing:
1. they’re going as cheap as possible, and ending up with 50% (sometimes more) of the course being delivered online (with nobody checking if it’s being done properly or just clicked through) and 50% by someone turning up and clicking through a PowerPoint.
2. They need a course very quickly because they’ve forgotten their 3 years is up, and they end up at the mercy use of the many big, national providers who will book them in at short notice, and happily fleece them of £200* (and often more) for 6 hours of first aid input where the instructor, you guessed it, clicks through a PowerPoint, they do 10 minutes of basic CPR and their 3 year clock is reset.
*Before anyone suggests I’m on a witch hunt, google emergency first aid at work and check out the prices the big household names are charging, many are now up to £220 per person including VAT!!! A company in our region charges just shy of £200 per person and allows groups of up to 32 trainees in one room!!! For regulated courses, the most we are allowed to have in order to provide QUALITY training is 12; how an instructor gets round 32 people and assesses them all as being competent is anyone’s guess, but to us it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen!
Take a look at the table below and you’ll see why I have so much faith in what I’m doing; I’m providing the best training, the best value for money, the best aftercare and have the best people around me pushing our business forwards. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but confident, competent first aiders can be built in just 6 hours with our course!
