Background
While most of us usually complete a first aid training course as a job requirement, having the knowledge and necessary skills in this area can make all the difference in an emergency. According to paramedics and medical professionals, the sooner someone can access and treat a person in an emergency situation, the better the chances of a full recovery. However when an emergency strikes there may not be medical professionals available, which is why knowing what to do in this situation is helpful.
PARASOL understands the importance of first aid knowledge within the community and have spent over 20 years focusing on delivering quality first aid training across Australia. PARASOL was the brain child of Peter Mckie, a NSW and ACT Ambulance Paramedic who witnessed first-hand the difference knowledge in first aid can have to a person’s recovery. While working in the industry he quickly identified the need for more accessible training in first aid that could be delivered by health care professionals with industry experience. From this realisation, PARASOL was started.
Since its establishment, PARASOL has trained over approximately 500,000 people ranging from students, retirees to corporate organisations. Over the last 20 years PARASOL has also expanded its course offerings to include courses in workplace health and safety regulation, in order to cater to the needs of more diverse corporate organisations as well as individuals.
Regardless of the training delivered, PARASOL prides itself on its course development team and using trainers with industry experience, to ensure it is delivering a high quality product. This enables the courses to be contextualised in order to suit the customer’s needs. PARASOL has also provided the option for trainers and organisations to become co-providers, which allows them to deliver this training to their own clientele or staff. As part of this program, PARASOL ensures personnel are maintaining and updating their skills by holding an annual conference or yearly workshop.
Solutions
Because PARASOL deliver training throughout Australia and deal with a diverse range of clientele, they required a simple yet comprehensive student management system to handle all of their bookings and to keep track of their diverse student, client and trainer base.
PARASOL are passionate about delivering quality first aid training, and a key requirement for them was compliance. Consequently they also needed a system which would handle their AVETMISS reporting needs.
Since partnering with PARASOL in 2014, aXcelerate have been working closely with the team to ensure PARASOL are up to date and ready for the new reporting requirements that had been placed on all RTOs earlier this year by ASQA.
On initially starting with aXcelerate, it took a little time to adjust to a new set of processes, particularly the methods in which PARASOL did bulk student uploads. However after multiple sessions with our experienced aXcelerate trainers, PARASOL have found these processes to have made the overall reporting process much easier. They have been able to utilise features within aXcelerate’s new report builder and have worked together with aXcelerate to develop customisations which allow their enrolment process to flow more smoothly. This saves staff a great deal of time when dealing with the ongoing reporting processes, and allows them to focus on the most important priority; delivering quality training.
Looking to the future
aXcelerate are committed to supporting PARASOL and ensuring that they can maintain their record keeping and reporting requirements as they grow their student base. In particular, aXcelerate will focus on growing PARASOL’s key fields within aXcelerate as well as assisting PARASOL as they look to new methods of delivering training to clients, such as online and distance education training. aXcelerate will also look to apply elements of our new e-learning integration TIN CAN, in order to help build on PARASOL’s RPL and distance learning products. These tools will enable PARASOL to reach an even greater client base and deliver first aid training to Australia’s remote communities.
To find out more about PARASOL and the courses they offer, visit their website: http://www.parasol.com.au/
