Skills Maintenance (Proficiencies)

All Club members who hold a Surf Life Saving Australia Award must undergo annual skills maintenance (formerly known as a proficiency).  These checks are necessary to:

• Ensure ongoing competency of members in their area of training and activities.
• Maintain the standards of knowledge and expertise of surf life savers.
• Satisfy legal and statutory requirements.
• Reinforce and maintain our service commitment to the bathing and beach going community.

A member’s proficiency is valid until 31st December each year unless stated otherwise in Surfguard (ie First Aid (AID) has a three year proficiency requirement, SMBM has no proficiency requirement).  Members who are not proficient as at 31st December are not permitted to patrol, or compete in any SLSA competition, until they have obtained the required proficiency.  Members who have not renewed for the current season by 31st October each year will be archived in Surfguard.

Proficiencies for the 2023/2024 Season

Surf lifesaving clubs are responsible for ensuring that their members maintain their skills to the minimum standard set by Surf Life Saving Australia.  The guiding principle for skills maintenance is that surf lifesaving clubs must be able to meet their service level agreements with confidence in the lifesaving skills and abilities of their active patrolling members.

Each year there is a theory component including industry updates that have occurred within the previous 12 months.  Pre-season updates are available by viewing the 2023/2024 Pre Season Information Pack.

Members are encouraged to complete the theory component online, and this is available in the eLearning platform of the Members Area Account:

1. Log into members area account – https://members.sls.com.au
2. Select ‘eLearning’ from menu
3. Click ‘Login to eLearning’
4. Click ‘Training Library’
5. Click on the ‘SLS Skills Maintenance’ tile,
6. Click to enrol into the course
7. If you do not complete the entire course in one sitting, click on ‘My Training’ to resume

The wet proficiency for Bronze and SRC (run-swim-run, board or tube rescue and scenarios) will be completed on patrol, as well as IRB and ART updates.  Patrol Captains will advise their teams when wet proficiency sessions will take place.

The support document – ‘Skills Maintenance Information Booklet V2 updated 29/06/2023‘ should be read in conjunction with the annual SLS skills maintenance circular containing information relevant to annual updates.

Useful Resources:

https://www.surflifesaving.com.au/members/members-info/lifesaving/