Accidents and injuries can happen at any moment, anywhere. Recent annual figures show there were about 1.8 million emergency department presentations for injury in Australia.
Knowing how to respond to an accident or injury in the first few minutes can be the difference between a full recovery and a tragedy. That’s why undertaking a first aid course isn’t just a box to tick, it’s an essential life skill that empowers you to save lives and make your environment safer.
Shockingly, fewer than 5% of Australians are trained in first aid. Given that it is such an important way of being there for others, we’re hoping to change that!
Here are three reasons you should consider completing a first aid course as soon as you can:
You can save a life
The most obvious and powerful reason to complete a first aid course is that it could help you save a life. Whether it’s performing CPR, stopping severe bleeding, or recognising the signs of a heart attack, if you’ve done a first aid course you can spring into action even while waiting for emergency services to arrive.
The first few moments are critical, and knowing what to do gives you the confidence to act, not panic.
It’s a workplace requirement
For business owners, managers, and team leaders, ensuring staff have completed a first aid course isn’t just good practice, it’s a legal and moral responsibility.
More broadly, employers have a primary duty to provide a safe workplace. In South Australia, there are explicit responsibilities to:
‘Ensure you have:
- a safe work environment
- policies and procedures and safe work practices in place…’
And employers must ‘…Provide all workers with:
…sufficient information, instruction, training and supervision to ensure that they are competent to work safely…’
Having people trained in first aid in the workplace can help attend to these responsibilities.
But specifically, and more importantly, in South Australia ‘Every workplace has a legal responsibility for ensuring adequate first aid provisions…
…You have a duty to provide first aid. You must give your workers, and anyone else attending your workplace, access to:
- appropriate first aid equipment
- trained first aiders…
…It is recommended to have one first aider for:
- every 25 workers in a high-risk workplace
- every 50 workers in a low-risk workplace.’
Safe Work Australia says that ‘Your first aiders should:
- hold a nationally recognised statement of attainment from a registered training organisation…’ (that’s us!)
According to Safe Work Australia, sadly in 2023, 200 people experienced fatal work-related injuries, whilst there were 147,000 serious claims over the 2023-24 period in the workplace across Australia. And over the past decade serious injury claims have increased by nearly 35%.
But your workplace can help mitigate these disastrous figures because employees who are first aid trained are able to respond faster during incidents, help prevent minor injuries from becoming major ones and build a stronger, safety-conscious culture.
Workplaces that prioritise safety foster trust, reduce risk, and demonstrate genuine care for their people.
It happens during the fun times too
When more people complete a first aid course, everyone benefits. Accidents don’t just happen in workplaces they happen at home, on the road, and during community events. Consider sporting activities and how often an injury or accident can happen. Did you know that, on average, more than one person per week dies in a sporting or recreation setting in Australia?
A neighbour, teammate, or parent trained in first aid can make all the difference in those critical early minutes.
Encouraging families, schools, sporting clubs, and local organisations to invest in first aid training builds stronger, more resilient communities. Each person trained increases the chances that someone nearby can step in and save a life.
Studying first aid is actually easier than you think and you don’t even need to work in healthcare or a role that requires it. A first aid course is straightforward, hands-on, and usually completed within a single day.
Our first aid course is run monthly and is suitable for community and workplace settings and includes the first aid guidelines determined by the Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) and other Australian national peak clinical bodies.
Taking the time to undertake a first aid course is one of the simplest yet most meaningful ways to protect your colleagues, loved ones, and community.
