Occupational health and safety training specialist ATA International has opened an Advanced Life Support Training Academy in South Africa, as part of a joint venture initiative with Emergency Care Global. ECG owner Hoosein Ravat points out that he approached ATA International to go into a joint venture to run the academy, due to the fact that the company has in the past placed a large number of candidates at the ECG college for advanced life support training. "Over the years, we have developed a strong working relationship with ATA International, which has an excellent reputation in the industry. Following discussions, the deal was finally closed in May 2012," he explains.
The training academy specialises in offering post qualification programmes for healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, medics and physiotherapists. ATA International director Trevor Justus notes that the training centre is currently mobile. "We typically try to run the courses in centralised areas, such as a well known conference venues in the Midrand area, due to the fact that it is central between Pretoria and Johannesburg." Justus highlights the fact that training is also run at hotels and various other locations where ATA International students are located. "The aim for the centre in future will be to have a permanent training centre located in Johannesburg, while ensuring that a mobile kit is on hand for out-of-town courses that are beyond the borders of Gauteng."

The four key courses that are currently available include;
- Basic Life Support (BLS)
- Paediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)
- International Trauma Life Support (ITLS)
- Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS)

The training centre has a core of highly capable and respected instructors across all disciplines, who have to date presented a number of BLS, PALS, ITLS and ACLS courses. Despite the success to date, Justus admits that one of the biggest challenges is that these instructors all hold down full time jobs, as well as the positions as instructors for ATA International. "One of the plans for the centre is to hold more weekend and long weekend courses, in order to ensure that people don’t have to take as much leave." According to Justus, the Advanced Life Support Training Academy offers instructor programmes on request. "We also offer courses specifically around CPR and AED, and are also looking at bringing in the access programme, which is a form of extrication. ATA would like to expand this to include access and paediatric trauma programmes."Justus notes that there are typically between six and eight people per course, . "The reason for keeping the numbers small is because each of these programmes is based around the dynamics of a team, and the value of a team is lost when there are too many or too few people. There is a huge drive into the market place for team driven patient care and, as a result, all the programmes revolve around this."

Looking to the future, Justus is optimistic of the future outlook for the new training centre. "Demand for the services offered by the training centre has been excellent throughout 2012, and we hope to continue training at these levels in the future, with the eventual long term plan of expanding our geographical footprint across the whole of South Africa," he concludes. The Advanced Life Support Training Academy is affiliated with the Resuscitation Council of South Africa and the International Trauma Life Support Chapter.