Crew training
Training is what turns a volunteer from someone who is willing to save lives into someone who can do it well and safely.
The RNLI College is the home of crew training in the RNLI. Approximately 2,000 crew pass through the College annually to participate in one or more of the 36 different courses currently on offer.
All-weather lifeboat courses include search and rescue, boat-handling and preparation courses for the RYA Yachtmaster and Coastal Skipper exams. These courses are conducted afloat in our bespoke Hardy training boats or in the purpose-built mission simulator.
The survival centre hosts the combined first aid, sea survival and firefighting course. The Sea Survival Course is kindly supported by the Lloyd's Register Educational Trust. Complete darkness, thunder, lightning, and helicopter recovery can all be simulated to very real effect. The pool also hosts the capsize training element of inshore lifeboat courses.
The survival centre also houses the live engineering workshop, which has six working lifeboat engines that students can dismantle and rebuild.
RNLI crew also have access to Operations Training Online (OTO) via Porthole training intranet pages. Here they can access resources, development plans and course information linked to the crew competency framework
Contact details:
RNLI College
West Quay Road
Poole
Dorset BH15 1HZ
Tel: 0870 833 2000
The Lloyd's Register Educational Trust funds training for new recruits
The Lloyd's Register Educational Trust (The LRET) has generously stepped in to fund the sea survival element of the new Trainee Crew course for 5 years, from January 2011 – December 2015.
This amounts to support of almost £1M.
