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QNUK Level 3 Award in Emergency Outdoor First Aid (RQF)
One day, for activity centres and outdoor settings where a casualty is typically less than thirty minutes from the emergency services. Outdoor first aid without the remote expedition material.
About this course
The QNUK Level 3 Award in Emergency Outdoor First Aid is the one day outdoor qualification. It is written for people working in an outdoor activity environment, activity centres above all, where the work is genuinely outdoors but help is close enough that a casualty is normally with the emergency services inside half an hour.
That distance is what separates it from the two day Outdoor First Aid award. Thirty minutes is a holding job. Two hours is casualty care, with shelter, monitoring and a much wider set of injuries to deal with, and that needs the longer course.
This one covers the outdoor essentials: assessing an incident in the open, CPR and the recovery position on real ground, bleeding, shock, sprains and fractures, hypothermia and heat illness, bites and stings, and how to summon help from somewhere without a postcode.
If your likely injuries are wider than this, or help is further away, QNUK themselves point you at the full Outdoor First Aid award instead. We will tell you which one fits before you book rather than after.
- Assessing an incident outdoors, including the hazards that are not the casualty
- Adult CPR and the recovery position on uneven ground
- Summoning help from an outdoor location and describing where you are
- Choking, serious external bleeding and shock
- Sprains, strains, fractures and dislocations, and basic improvised support
- Head injuries and when to stop an activity
- Hypothermia, heat exhaustion and heat stroke
- Bites, stings and anaphylaxis
- Recording the incident and handing over
How completing this course helps you
- QNUK Level 3 Award in Emergency Outdoor First Aid, valid for three years
- A recognised outdoor first aid qualification for activity centre work
- Staff who can manage an incident outdoors until the ambulance arrives
- A sensible step towards the two day Outdoor First Aid award if the work changes
Who should attend?
Staff in outdoor activity environments where the emergency services are normally within about thirty minutes: activity centre instructors, holiday park and adventure staff, groundworkers and estate teams, sports and school trip leaders, and volunteers running outdoor sessions.
Entry requirements. None. You need to be physically able to carry out practical first aid on the floor, including CPR on a manikin, and to have enough English to follow the training and the written assessment.
Ready to take the next step?
Choose a delivery option, compare dates and book with confidence, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Choosing the right one
Which first aid course does your workplace actually need?
The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 do not name a course. They tell an employer to carry out a first aid needs assessment and then provide what that assessment says is adequate, which is why two businesses next door to each other can land on different answers.
The rough shape is this. Lower hazard workplaces usually land on Emergency First Aid at Work, one day. Higher hazard workplaces, larger headcounts and anywhere with specific risks usually land on First Aid at Work, three days. Early years settings have their own rules through the Department for Education. Outdoor and remote work adds distance from the ambulance, which changes the answer again.
If you are not sure where you sit, ring us with what your people actually do and we will talk it through. Sending somebody on the wrong course costs more than the phone call.
Do the needs assessment first
Hazards, headcount, shift patterns, lone workers and how far you are from help. The HSE guidance is the starting point and it is short.
Match the course to the answer
EFAW for lower hazard, FAW for higher hazard, plus any specific qualification your setting or your insurer requires.
Plan the three years
Certificates last three years and the HSE recommends an annual refresher in between. Diary it when you book, not when it expires.
Course content
What you will cover
The qualification is structured around the management of health and safety and the practical application of risk assessment.
The outdoor first aider
- The role and responsibilities of an outdoor first aider
- Minimising the risk of infection
- Consent, casualty safety and your own safety
- Assessing an incident outdoors
- Summoning assistance and giving a findable location
- Recording and reporting
Emergencies outdoors
- When to administer CPR, and demonstrating it on uneven ground
- The recovery position and monitoring a casualty
- Choking, mild and severe
- Serious external bleeding and shock
- Head injuries and the decision to stop
- Sprains, strains, fractures and dislocations
- Hypothermia, heat exhaustion and heat stroke
- Bites, stings and anaphylaxis
Method of assessment
How Emergency Outdoor First Aid is assessed
Assessment runs through the course rather than being bolted on at the end. Your tutor observes the practical work as you go, and the written paper closes it off.
Practical observation
Observed through the day, with a good part of it outside. CPR on the ground rather than on a mat is a different job and it is better to find that out on the course.
Written assessment
A multiple choice paper at the end of the day, covering the outdoor injuries and illnesses alongside the core first aid.
Certification
Issued by QNUK and valid for three years, like the workplace awards.
Ways to learn
How you can take this course
Every route covers the same accredited syllabus and the same support. Pick the one that fits how your people work.
Classroom
Tutor-led at one of our centres, with everything provided.
Ask us to open a classroom date →or ask MB nowDates and locations
Arrange this course
There are no scheduled dates for this course at the moment. It is normally arranged around you.
Tell us roughly when you need it and how many people are going, and we will come back with dates and a price.
Also available
In-company training
We run this one to order, at your place or ours.
Onsite / in-company
Run Emergency Outdoor First Aid at your site
We deliver anywhere in the UK, on your dates and around your shift patterns. For six or more people it is usually cheaper per head than sending everyone to a centre, and nobody loses a day travelling.
Tell us roughly how many people and when, and we will come back with options and a price, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
What onsite includes
- The same tutor, materials and certification as our centres
- Your venue or one we arrange near you
- Dates and start times built around your operation
- One invoice and one point of contact for the whole group
- Content examples drawn from your own workplace
Emergency Outdoor First Aid FAQs
Work out how long it would realistically take the emergency services to reach your worst likely casualty. Under about thirty minutes and this one day award fits. Longer than that, or with a wider range of likely injuries, and QNUK point you at the two day Outdoor First Aid award instead.
That is precisely who it was written for. QNUK describe it as intended for those working in an outdoor activity environment such as activity centres, which is the wording most centre operating procedures are built around.
Not automatically. If your organisation also has a workplace first aid needs assessment covering an office, a workshop or a reception, that may still call for EFAW or FAW. The two sit alongside each other rather than cancelling out.
Outdoor clothing and footwear for the weather on the day. Part of the course runs outside, and the point is to practise in conditions that resemble the ones you actually work in.
Three years. The HSE also recommends an annual refresher in between, which is a half day and keeps skills and confidence current rather than letting them fade for three years at a time.
Yes, anywhere in the UK. For six or more people it is normally cheaper per head than sending everybody to a centre, and nobody loses a day travelling. We work around your shift patterns.
At our centres in Stoke-on-Trent, Derby, Manchester and Liverpool, at your own premises nationwide, and through our partner network where a local option suits you better. Pick a date from the board on this page or call 0330 124 2165.
QNUK, an Ofqual regulated awarding organisation. This one is QNUK Level 3 Award in Emergency Outdoor First Aid (RQF), accreditation number 603/2454/5. We are an approved QNUK centre.
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