Stephen Blenkinsop, our senior trainer has been teaching for over thirty six years and was a former member of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service until his retirement after thirty one years experience, both operationally on the front line fighting fire as well as secondments to their training acadamey.
He has taught many subjects ranging from basic firefighting and first aid to driving Fire Appliances and has experience of a wide range of vehicles and uses, fire appliances to crash tenders, four wheel drive and blue light responce training.
During those years he has received training and experience in many sectors from Airport firefighting, building construction, legislation, fire safety, fire investigation through to Computers and moulage. Add to that thirty years experience of helping others in the civilian world to pass advanced tests both as a volunteer with IAM and RoSPA and the last fourteen years as senior trainer of SADE Limited.
Stephen has also taught many others to become involved in training, from assisting upcoming approved driving instructors, through to qualifying others to become NVQ trainers and assessors, he also has a long standing interest in computers starting with a Sinclair and BBC, to teaching and managing the European Computer Driving Licence Syllabus, and he has also taught archery coaching to a national level.
Some of his driving skills and experiences are listed here;
Some of his Fire Safety skills and experiences are listed here;
We are naturally committed to Continual Professional Development in all areas of our work, and strive to continually update our knowledge, skills and understanding, and this is assisted by membership or being involved with some of the following bodies:
Driving Instructors Association, Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents, Brake, Linked-In, Fleet Safety Forum, Health and Safety Executive Bulletin Service, Fleet Management Forum, Engage Driver Training Group.Much more important than the exhaustive lists above, is Stephen´s natural scouse sense of humour and his ability to endear to people, especially when they are being put under the spotlight, as we all tend to think we are experts at two particular life skills, one being driving..... Stephen has perfected the skill of engaging with people to work with them, rather than trying to criticise them for their driving habits, this customer centered approach makes for a much more interesting and rewarding coaching session.