Registration of first aid credits
For National Certificate in Water Reticulation Level 3
The National Certificate towards which you or your staff are studying contains three First Aid unit standards. It is not possible for trainees to complete their qualification and receive their NZQA National Certificate until first aid unit standards are registered with NZQA.
First Aid unit standards are assessed and conferred by an existing NZQA accredited first aid training provider (e.g. St John, Red Cross, etc). The responsibility to ensure the three first aid unit standards (reference numbers 6400, 6401 and 6402) are registered rests with the trainee and their employer.
A standard two day first aid course (or shorter duration refresher course) assesses trainees for competency in unit standards 6400 and 6401 and 6402. Almost everyone in the industry will have attended a first aid course and most continue to attend refresher courses periodically (every two years).
Attendance at a first aid course does not necessarily mean the unit standards have been registered with NZQA. Unless these unit standards have been formally credited to the trainee's personal Record of Learning with NZQA, they cannot be credited to a qualification.
You may have a certificate from your training provider that says you have achieved these three units, but that alone is not sufficient for us to be able to apply for your national certificate. To ensure the first aid credits are processed, trainees must specifically request their NZQA accredited first aid training provider to forward details of the trainee's completion of the course to NZQA and pay a small processing fee.
This request can be made at any time after first aid training has been completed (even years later).
Here is what to do:
- Ensure you know your own personal NZQA national student number (NSN). Your NSN can be advised by us on request.
- Contact your first aid training provider and tell them you want unit standards credited to you for past completion of a first aid course. You will need to:
- Tell them where and when you completed your last first aid course
- Tell them your full name and NSN number
- Ask them to credit you with the unit standards 6400, 6401 and 6402
- Arrange payment of their credit processing fee - typically $5 to $15.
We recommend trainees check their own Record of Learning (RoL) on the NZQA website about five weeks later to ensure the credits have been successfully loaded. If not, call your first aid training provider and ask them to look into it. Processing of NZQA credits should take one to four weeks after you request it.
Trainees can check their RoL at any time, free of charge, by logging on to the NZQA website. You will need your NSN to do this. The first time you use this website, you will need to register and will be assigned a PIN number.
We cannot process your first aid credits for you. It is therefore essential that trainees or their employers follow the process above to ensure these three first aid unit standards are added to their Record of Learning with NZQA.
If you have a first aid course scheduled for the next few weeks or months, you can take your NSN number and the processing fee along and request the credits be processed. But if your next refresher is further away, it's best to request processing based on your previous first aid course.
If your first aid training provider is Red Cross or St John’s, this should be quite straightforward. If your first aid training provider tells you they cannot process these credits, it's likely because they are not affiliated with a NZQA accredited provider for these units. If this is the case, you will need to complete a first aid course with an accredited provider (and have the credits processed) before you can complete your qualification.
Please call Water Industry Training if you have any questions about this process on 0800 Water IT (0800 928 374).