Your first aid is current for three years. Your CPR isn't.
CPR currency needs refreshing every 12 months, not every three years like the rest of your first aid certificate. Here's why, and what it means for your workplace.
Most people carry one number in their head about first aid training: three years. Get certified, and you are set for three years.
For first aid, that matches the recommended renewal cycle. For CPR, it does not, and the gap is where workplaces quietly fall out of cover.
The two timeframes that matter
A first aid certificate and a CPR certificate are not the same thing, and they are not kept current on the same schedule.
- HLTAID011 Provide First Aid is recommended for renewal every three years.
- HLTAID009 Provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which sits inside that first aid course, is recommended for refresh every 12 months.
That is not an arbitrary rule. CPR is a perishable skill. Compression depth, compression rate, the rhythm of breaths, the confidence to actually start, all of it degrades measurably within months of training if it is never practised. Twelve months is the point at which a refresher meaningfully restores competence. Three years is far too long to leave it.
So a person can hold a perfectly valid first aid certificate and still have CPR skills that are well out of currency. On paper they are covered. In a real cardiac emergency, they may not be ready.
Why this catches workplaces out
Currency does not announce itself when it lapses. A certificate sits in a file, still technically valid, while the currency behind it quietly runs out. The most common way a workplace discovers its first aiders are out of CPR currency is at exactly the moment it matters, which is the worst possible time to find out.
It is an easy thing to miss because the headline number, three years, is the one everyone remembers. The 12-month CPR refresh is the detail that slips.
One question to ask this week
If you are responsible for a team, you do not need an audit to get started. You need one question:
When did our first aiders last refresh their CPR? Not their full first aid. Their CPR.
If the answer is "I am not sure," that is the answer. It is worth checking properly.
What good CPR training actually looks like
A refresher is not a slideshow and a signature. Done properly, it is hands on a manikin, real scenarios, and enough repetition that the skill is back in the body, not just in the memory. That is the difference between a certificate and genuine readiness.
This is how we run it. Apex facilitators are practitioners, and first aid is taught the way it is actually used: practical, scenario based, and built so it sticks.
Get your team current
We deliver HLTAID009 and HLTAID011 for workplaces, clubs and groups across Melbourne. We come to you, and we keep it practical.
If it has been a while, or you are not sure how long, let's talk about what your team needs.
Apex Learning and Development, RTO 46324.
HLTAID009 Provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation and HLTAID011 Provide First Aid are nationally recognised units of competency delivered by Apex Learning and Development, RTO 46324.