7 staff at Nelson and Colne College Sixth Form have completed Heartstart training, an initiative started by the British Heart Foundation.
Heartstart training teaches people what to do in a life-threatening emergency – it provides them with simple skills that save lives. Learning Emergency Life Support (ELS) skills can help to keep someone alive until professional help arrives. Heartstart schemes are run by people in local communities. They’re independent of the British Heart Foundation and provide free training in the community and schools. To date 2.6 million people have been trained through Heartstart and Nelson and Colne College hopes to boost this number by up to 500 per year by offering the training to both staff and students.
To kick start this process, Richie Watts, who is the Quality and School Links Coordinator at the College has been assessed by the British Heart Foundation and North West Ambulance Service and approved to provide the necessary training to others. So far, 6 members of staff have completed the Heartstart training meaning they are qualified to guide others through the process and the plan is to offer the training to others around College.
Quality and School Links Coordinator, Richie Watts said, “Heartstart is a fantastic initiative, as it is something that can have a really positive impact on people and the wider community. This sort of training is so successful because it means that even someone who is physically unable to offer the first aid, can assist and advise someone else – the potential for savings lives is huge! We are really excited in College to take up this scheme and I’m confident that both students and staff will be keen to learn these vital skills.”
