First aid certificate expiry: HLTAID011, the 3-year cycle and annual CPR

The current nationally recognised unit for providing first aid is HLTAID011 Provide First Aid. The current CPR unit is HLTAID009 Provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation. These units are published on training.gov.au, the national register of vocational education and training. They describe competency, not a statutory expiry date.

What the official codes of practice say

Safe Work Australia’s model Code of Practice: First aid in the workplace (July 2019) says: “First aiders should attend training on a regular basis to refresh their first aid knowledge and skills and to confirm their competence to provide first aid. Refresher training in CPR should be carried out annually and first aid qualifications should be renewed every three years.”

SafeWork NSW uses the same recommendation: first aiders should hold a nationally recognised qualification issued by an RTO, refresh CPR annually, and renew first aid qualifications every three years.

In the model Code, “should” means a recommended course of action. Safe Work Australia also says you must check with your local WHS regulator whether the Code has legal effect in your jurisdiction. The recommendation is about keeping workplace first aiders current, not about a certificate automatically becoming invalid on a set date.

What this means in practice

• Treat HLTAID011 (or a later official successor unit) as the current Provide First Aid qualification for workplace first aiders.
• Plan to renew that first aid qualification every three years, as the codes recommend.
• Plan a CPR refresher every 12 months. The current CPR unit is HLTAID009.
• Completing a full first aid course that includes CPR refreshes CPR at that time. In the years between full first aid renewals, the codes still recommend an annual CPR refresher.

A Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) also has legal duties to provide first aid equipment, facilities and access to trained first aiders. The number of first aiders and the level of training should follow a risk assessment of the work, hazards, workplace size and location, and who is present. The model Code and SafeWork NSW both discuss this in more detail.

Keep the date, not just the PDF

For a staff register, record the unit code, the date the Statement of Attainment was issued, the RTO, and the planned CPR and first aid refresh dates. If a contract, principal contractor or your own policy requires a more recent course than the Code recommends, follow the stricter requirement.