Safety Training Seminars is likely a brand you’ve heard of if you’re in an industry that requires safety training and certification. But, of course, navigating this industry is always challenging. You don’t always know who to trust and whether you should use specific providers, especially given the number of fakes and frauds out there.
The good news is that it is possible to identify legitimate providers (as this review makes clear). Once you’ve got one, it’s the sort of relationship you want to hold onto for dear life. Safety Training Seminars is a registered American Heart Association Training Center providing certified courses, including ACLS, PALS, NRP, CPR, and First-Aid. The company was set up all the way back in 1989 before internet scams and offers combination learning models where students complete in-person and online classes.
The outfit currently operates more than 70 locations in California alone and is respected for its same-day certification process. But, ultimately, is it any good?
Here, we find out.
A Quick Overview Of Safety Training Seminars’ Courses
Safety Training Seminars (STS) provides numerous courses for participants to get their teeth into. These cover all of the basics, as you’d expect, but there are some more advanced options, too. A core offering is the CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation course. This teaches foundations skills on what to do if someone is unconscious, and goes through things like how to perform chest compressions and perform rescue breaths for adults and children.
BLS or basic life support, is a secondary offering designed for healthcare providers and first responders. The course teaches everything from the use of AEDs to team dynamics in challenging medical situations, making it particularly suitable for dental staff and nurses. Other offerings include first aid, which covers minor injuries, medical emergencies and allergic reactions, advanced cardiovascular life support, which deals with cardiac arrest cases and stroke, and pediatric advanced life support for infants and children in the emergency room.
What We Love About STS
Let’s start with the good news: some of the things we loved about STS.
Lowest Priced American Heart Association BLS Certification Classes
First and foremost, we liked the fact that STS has done everything it can to provide people using it with value for money. It’s one of the most affordable legitimate options out there, making it ideal for organizations looking to stretch their budgets further and still get the value they want.
What’s more, STS backs its claim that it offers the lowest-price options with a low-price guarantee. If users can find a cheaper option elsewhere, it’ll refund the difference.
Wide Range Of Courses
Another perk is the wide array of courses on offer. STS provides comprehensive training for everyone from the lay public to medical professionals, making it a great option for organizations with varied human resources.
For example, the pediatric advanced life support program is ideal for anyone working with children, while first aid skills should be something everyone knows.
Same-Day Certification
The same-day certification is another nice touch that we appreciated. The fact that you can walk out of training with the certificate that you need is a major benefit and something that a lot of organisations will appreciate from an efficiency perspective. Unfortunately, many other providers don’t offer this in our experience. Certification can take up to two weeks in many cases which, in our view, simply leads to unnecessary delays.
Excellent Customer Service
We also liked STS’s excellent customer service, something that we weren’t expecting. It’s open from 8 am until 10 pm, even on the weekends, meaning that you can call up with questions pretty much whenever you want. This type of service is something that makes a massive difference for customer experience. We found that we were able to get responses and feedback consistently, no matter how obscure our inquiries were.
Convenient Locations
Finally, we liked the fact that STS offers convenient locations across the board in California, with more than 70 offices running classes daily. This sort of flexibility and reach is what many firms are looking for, especially those with multiple locations spread out across the state. STS’s wide coverage means that almost any business, organization or member of staff can gain access to training without having to travel far.
Minor Cons
Of course, no training service is perfect. But our gripes about STS are minimal on the whole. One issue is the risk of training quality variation. Operating 70 centers in a single state is no mean feat, but ensuring that the experience is consistent is challenging. Furthermore, we’d like to see STS branch out of California into other U.S. states so more people can benefit from its unique approach. While out-of-state students can attend its courses, it is inconvenient, pushing many to simply use local firms.
Finally, the reliance on technology for the online part of the course is a consideration. Technical difficulties could potentially disrupt the learning experience, but nothing game-changing.
What To Consider Before Using STS
If you’re keen to use STS, here’s what to consider:
- Whether the courses meet your professional requirements
- Whether you can afford to commit the time the courses require to complete
- If you or your team can access STS’s locations for the in-person training component
- Whether you have the budget to afford STS’s prices, despite the inherent affordability
- Whether you have a stable internet connection you can use to complete the course requirements
We suggest taking some time to mull over your options before pushing ahead. You need to know ahead of time whether you are getting the service you require.
Final Verdict: Is Safety Training Seminars Worth It?
We believe that Safety Training Seminars are worth it because it ticks all our boxes. It’s a legitimate provider associated with the American Heart Association and it delivers affordable training at convenient locations. While we have some minor gripes with the vendor, these are nothing compared to the problems you’ll experience if you risk going somewhere else.
