First Aid Training in East Africa 2024
In January and February 2024, our Director Cory Jones was working with adventure guides in East Africa training outdoor & wilderness first aid courses. Many of these guides have Paddle UK & Mountain Training (MT) qualifications so this training is important to ratify their UK qualifications. He has been successfully training wilderness and advanced first aid courses in Africa for over a decade.
There is now a team of first aid instructors that Cory has been developed in Kenya and Rwanda who can run first aid training for other guides at the same standards as are used in the UK. This is a project that has been ongoing for eight years. The real importance of developing first aid trainers in country is sustainability. Local trainers can run courses in local languages and understand the differences between their culture and western medicine. This makes instruction more understandable. All these African first aid trainers take their skills into their local community to teach how to save lives. The work of these trainers in increasing local communities’ knowledge in simple life saving techniques can’t be underestimated.
It is important for the first aid trainers to be properly supported and Cory provides quality assurance for the teams and for their learner journeys. Annual visits provide trainer support and knowledge enhancement, updates on assessment methodology and continuing professional development for the teams.
On this trip the new generation of trainers was inducted. Five new potential trainers in Kenya and one in Rwanda were supported through their Education and Training Award, First Aid at Work qualification and more importantly worked with Cory team teaching live customers on a series of first aid training courses. These live teaching sessions provide a good opportunity to assess the trainee’s development and give constructive feedback on how to become better first aid teachers and assessors.  The Level 3 Education and Training Award was sponsored by Matthew Reynolds of the Education and Training Academy.
In Kenya most of the training took place around Nairobi with some courses run out of the River Camp at Sagana near Mount Kenya. In Rwanda courses were delivered in Kigali, the capital city; Musanze which is where many tourists are based for their Mountain Gorilla treks into the Volcanos National Park and Gisenye in the west on the shore of Lake Kivu, the fourth largest lake in Africa. This First Aid Training in East Africa 2024 & Rwanda is supported by Kingfisher Journeys.
Cory Jones is a Director of First Aid Training Co-operative and Outdoor First Aid Ltd. He is a Paddle UK Endorsed Guide and a qualified International Mountain Leader. Cory has been teaching and assessing first aid courses for nearly twenty years and running first aid trainer induction training for over a decade. He is based in Scotland the home of First Aid Training Co-operative and was one of its founder members.
