National Pool Lifeguard Award

The National Pool Lifeguard Award (NPLA) was developed by NZRA (with support from Water Safety New Zealand) in 1992 and is the Industry’s recognition of the skills a person needs to work as a lifeguard in an aquatics facility. The NPLA provides better consistency, safety and professionalism for lifeguards nationally. The NPLA is the minimum qualification for swimming pool lifeguards. The NPLA is owned and managed by NZRA and administered through Skills Active (Sport, Fitness & Recreation Industry Training Organisation) who can provide assistance and more information on other training opportunities in the aquatic industry. 

The National Pool Lifeguard Award consists of the following Units Standards.

Unit	Description	Level	Credit
5683	Perform aquatic rescue techniques in a swimming pool environment.	3	4
5684	Intervene to prevent an emergency situation arising in an aquatic facility.	3	4
5685	Respond to an emergency in an aquatic facility.	4	6
5686	Supervise patrons at an aquatic facility.	4	4
6401	Provide First Aid	2	1
6402	Provide resuscitation level 2	1	1

NPLA Training Workbook The new NPLA Manual is supported by a workbook for candidates to complete during their training. Below is an electrontic copy of the Workbook.  It is to be used in conjunction with the NPLA Training Manual where the trainee lifeguards will find many of the answers to the questions and activities. NPLA Training Workbook pdf (775KB)

NPLA Instrustor Manual The new NPLA Instructor Manual is now available to assist NPLA Trainers. The Instructor Manual is a practical reference tool for anyone training entry level lifeguards, so that they can meet the assessment requirements for the NPLA; this manual also includes a copy of the model answers to the Workbook. The cost of the Instructor Manual is $45.00 + gst.   Order the new NPLA Instructor Manual by sending an email to info@nzrecreation.org.nz.

Industry Update

The following changes to the NPLA will affect your operations.
This information is to provide clarification and consistency for the training and assessment of the NPLA.

NPLA Assessment
A new Assessor Toolkit is available to be used for all NPLA assessments. The new assessor toolkit is aligned to the new NPLA Training Manual and workbook. All assessors will receive a copy of the new Assessor Toolkit by the end of November 2009. In the meantime, continue to use the existing Skills Active Assessor Toolkit.

Any questions regarding the NPLA assessment or moderation should be directed to your Skills Active Relationship Manager.

Unit Standard Review
Skills Active has started its regular review of all aquatics qualifications, namely Level 3, Level 4 and the NPLA award and these revised qualification will be lodged on the NZQA framework in 2010. The NPLA Unit Standards will be updated to align with the new NPLA Manual. If you would like to express an interest in being involved in the Unit Standard review please contact Skills Active at info@skillsactive.org.nz. Any changes to qualifications in the future will not invalidate qualifications gained.

Certificate Level Qualification
The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), which manages the government’s annual investment in the tertiary education system, has stated that they will require all ITO's to offer limited credit programmes (like NPLA) strictly as part of a larger national certificate from 2010. NZRA and Skills Active have agreed to raise this as an issue with TEC in relation to the NPLA award.