Running a training school has a purpose. Our goal is to help our local communities be prepared for life threatening emergencies and feeling confident in using the lifesaving techniques that we teach in our classes. It might sound “cliche“. However, it’s why we do what we do. We feel that we have a mission to help. The other gratification that we have is the fact that our services are needed. So why choose us? We will tell you why.

Award Winning- Certifications For Life Inc., has been breaking down barriers since we have opened the doors. Our community has a need for training and we are honored to serve those who need training. Since the American Red Cross has awarded their Licensed Training Providers in 2017, we have been a top provider. In 2020, we moved from being a top training provider in the tristate area to now in the top 200 training schools across the US. Thus, making us a Top National Training Provider. We look forward to achieving more success in years to come.

Our Instructors and Instructor Trainers-All of our Instructors and Instructor trainers are certified and licensed to teach the classes that we run. Our team is diverse culturally and professionally. Our team ranges from nurses to EMT’s, to business leaders, to teachers, to even full time Aquatic leaders that bring a lifetime of experience to meet the learning needs of our students who come through our doors. We have a unique interview process to find team members that share our vision and passion for serving the community. Moreover, the trainers attend continuous ongoing professional development to enhance their instructional methods inside the classroom.

Our Training Equipment- Certifications For Life Inc., has invested in training equipment to provide our students as realistic experiences as possible. This past spring we purchased our very first feedback manhkin set. Customers can now receive feedback from their manhkin in addition to their instructor to let them know whether they can perform compressions at the right rate and depth. We have AED trainers that mimic the prompting that one would hear when using an actual AED on a victim. In our health care professional classes, Bag -Valve masks are included in training in addition to gloves, breathing barriers, and first aid training equipment. In our lifeguard training classes, participants use all of these materials including our spinal board, rescue tubes, and other necessary training equipment. Every participant receives a breathing barrier as part of their class tuition payment.

Communication- Our communication with our customers is endless. As soon as you register for your training class, you will receive a confirmation email, to text message reminders before your class. We also communicate with our customers after their class to ensure that each customer has a positive experience. We are NOT perfect and make mistakes. We like to resolve concerns quickly and efficiently. We have never not returned an email, text message, or call any longer than 48 hours. As of this past year, we implemented a text message reminder to help remind our customers when their certification will expire. We start off with a 90 day reminder and continue to reach out to our customers even when they expire as we know life happens. For customers who do not want to be on these text message lists, we respect their wishes and communicate with them using other means that they provide consent too.

Customer Focused- The class is about our participants. We focus on instructional methods that will help our participants feel successful in their training. Questions and feedback are welcome. Relationships between the student and instructors are created naturally.

Certifications- Certifications are quickly processed as the technology to process these documents allows for a seamless process. Most of our classes result in a 2 year certification. The exception is our CPO class which is a 5 year certification. Certifications directly come from the American Red Cross. They are emailed directly to the participant so they can download and save a copy to their desktop for future use.

Customizable Classes- We provide variety of options for any individual to business. From our popular blended learning format to full in-person classes, training fits your schedule as you need it too.

• WordPress

For anyone who does not know me, before I decided to become a teacher, I really wanted to be a commentator for the World Wrestling Entertainment otherwise known as “WWE”. As a kid, I loved watching professional wrestling and immediately resonated with the superstars of the “Attitude Era” and continue to watch the show on a weekly basis. I have attended many live shows and paper views from No Mercy, to Monday Night Raw, to the Super Bowl of shows Wrestlemania 29 and my latest adventure Wrestlemania 35 where I was able to witness history. For 34 Wrestlemanias men have main evented the “Show of the Immortals”. Wrestlemania 35 was different where three women closed out the show . One of those women was Ronda Rousey. Anyway, I can go on and on about the WWE and the positive impact that it has had on my life from being a kid to an adult. I always wanted to share my artistic side in a different way. Last year, I had the idea of starting the show, but COVID-19 hit and my focus shifted towards the business. I had a lot of things to work on and get a hold of how to run “Certifications For Life”. It finally came to me that I could do this podcast show. I spoke to others and let them know that I wanted to do this. So now it is here. “The Justin Gala Show”.

Where can you find my show? My podcast can be found on Spotify, Google Podcast, RadioPublic, and many other platforms to come.

What is the link to my podcast show?Click here

Do you have any sponsors for your podcast show? Yes! I do have a sponsor. I hope to attract more sponsors and pay it forward. 

What topics will be discussed on the show and is the podcast show child friendly? My show will be child friendly. The topics that will be discussed will be the following:

• Promoting other businesses and colleagues who I know are great people, work hard, and care about their customers. It never hurts to recommend businesses. I want to pay it forward. I asked these business owners to be part of my show.
• “Education” in a way of sharing ideas, success stories, inspirations, good books, ideas, and hopefully a way to help children, families, and other educators.
• The art of CPR/AED training, first aid training, good safety habits, and promoting the importance of being trained .
• The field of aquatics from everyday lifeguard life, lifeguard training, risk management/ consultation ideas, pool operator stories, swim instruction, commercial pool industry, and how anyone can help keep a community or a residential pool safe. You will hear from instructors, managers, commercial pool business owners, etc about their experiences first hand.
• Mental health awareness and strategies for stress management.
• Professional wrestling discussions and UFC discussions.

*This podcast show will NOT discuss anything political in nature as this is a political free podcast . I believe that everyone has a right to their political opinion, but that these opinions are not meant for public ears as I do not want listeners to feel that the show is politically biased in anyway. All podcast guests have agreed to voluntarily participate in the show on their own will. Podcast guests are choosing to voluntarily meet on their own time to produce accurate content.

How often will there be episodes? As often as I can make episodes and as often as guests are willing to participate in the show.

I would like to be on the podcast show. How do I request to be on the show? Send an email to jgala@certsforlife.net .

COVID19 has impacted businesses around the world. Even more so, it has left an impact on how businesses are able to provide services and products to customers who are in need. As a business owner, educator, and risk management consultant myself, my biggest challenges over the last 9 weeks have been the day to day changes in order to meet the needs of my team members and clients, executing safety plans with the most up to date information, decontamination policies, risk management plans, and communicating this information in the best way possible without overwhelming my team members, customers, and the community. I would be lying to you if I said this was easy. This is my first experience as a business leader facing a pandemic crisis, but with challenges, I have also been able to grab the “brass -ring”. Kudos to you if you are a wrestling fan and have heard this expression before. This is not a time to be greedy, selfish, and put other businesses down. Instead, this is a time for business leaders to get involved with their communities and other leaders to establish safe guidelines to re-open their communities. Over the past 9 weeks, I have seen friends, clients, and colleagues lose everything they worked for in a matter of seconds. This was devastating for them and devastating for me to witness. I knew that I needed to work harder than ever to support those who needed me most from a friend’s perspective, a teacher, a consultant, and a business leader. Here is what I have been working on over the past 9 weeks to build resiliency to Certifications For Life Inc., LLC. and to help my community prepare for the summer.

1. I cut all non- essential spending. I went through my bank statements and cut everything other than the essentials. This allowed me to keep my team on staff.
2. I further developed my “motto” to further develop relationships with existing friends, family members, colleagues, existing clients, and new clients.  My “motto” is H-T-C ( Honesty, transparency, consistency). Honesty- This was not a time to make up stories and make false promises. People’s livelihood were at stake. I could never live with myself by lying. In order to remain honest with myself and everyone else. I made it my duty after every day of school to search for any webinars, resources, articles, as well as staying up to date with guidance from the American Red Cross, CDC, Pool, and Hot Tub Alliance,  NJ Department of Health, and our NJ Governor’s daily reports.  For any update that I received, I shared it with my clients. If I did not have an answer, I was honest about it. Transparency- I decided early on that daily emails and text messages were going to upset my followers including my team members. Instead, I used the power of technology by “going live” or recording the videos giving a weekly or a bi-weekly update after digesting and being trained properly with the above resources as to how services would commence keeping my customers and team members safe as well as abiding all the guidelines. For example, for those customers who needed CPR/AED/first aid training certifications for whatever reason, I made sure that I went over all of the ways that we could provide these services with the idea that the “stay at home order” could be extended. My customer’s time and money were deeply considered. My services are classes, and I wanted every customer to get the most out of what they paid for. For lifeguard training classes, I have been very honest about the modifications that were allowed, what skills could be completed when, and a timeframe for when team-based skills could potentially be finished. Having plans for how these classes would operate was important and allowed existing and new customers to make their own informed decisions on whether to hold off from registering for classes or signing up and completing what could get done. Consistency-The messages in writing and over the phone had to remain 100% consistent. If there was a change in information, I made sure to explain when the information changed and by whom. I made sure that the information was consistent on all platforms such as my website and social media pages.

What were the fruits of doing all of these things?

I was able to do what I love to do and provide services virtually and maintain my presence. My business has transformed into being a business that was able to provide more services virtually and by adding more consulting services. 

COVID19 and Pool Re-opening recommendations.

Besides being a trainer for CPR/AED/First Aid and Lifeguard training classes, I have over 11 years as a CPO and an Aquatic Director for multiple locations. Everything I do is about “risk management” and pool safety. Here is what I have found.

Pool Season- Where are we?

This kills me to see that pools cannot open at this time. During the months of February-September, every weekend is spent at a pool either training lifeguards, conducting risk-management assessments/ consulting, evaluating swim instruction programs, training managers, and even for leisure. I was very upset that I could not be on a pool deck or in a pool. As of May 18, 2020, only CPO’s and pool maintenance staff can be on the properties either starting to open up their pools or maintain the pool chemicals as it would be a health concern to abandon the job. The poor day camps and commercial pool companies are at a standstill waiting for guidelines. There have been recommendations, but as CPO’s we are always asking “Well what if…?”. We want “guidelines” by our health inspectors to take back to our attorneys to make sure that we limit the chance of hurting or infecting our teams and guests. 

Where are you obtaining information regarding re-opening guidelines:

• CDC
• American Red Cross
• Pool & Hot Tub Alliance
• NJ Department of Health
• American Camping Association
• Constant and Consistent dialogue with other leading consultants in the industry.
• NJ Parks and Recreation.
• NJ.com daily updates from the governor.
• Professional groups .

It needs to be understood that the above resources are providing “recommendations” to help us start the process in getting our pools open if there is a safe and possible way. We are all waiting for the department of health to provide us “guidelines”.

A common concern that I keep hearing

My commercial pool company has all of these requirements for signing waivers, taking temperatures, and making us wear face shields, and possibly bringing our own furniture.

COVID19 has raised fears and suspicions about what the proper protocol is. The property association and commercial pool company have a huge obligation to make sure that you, the other residents, and their lifeguards are safe. I ask that you remain patient, as well as allow your commercial pool companies to alter rules and regulations per the NJ DOH or your State’s DOH. This summer will be different than other summers, but we need to be mindful of protecting each other otherwise the ramifications will be far worse.

More information to come once more information is released. Please comment on this article if there are any suggestions or comments that you would like to make.

Check out the legal side of doing cpr and using an AED. Hopefully this will motivate more people to get training. Every second counts! #certificationsforlifeinc #toparcprovider #toparcinstructors #bestemergencytrainingschool #learningtosavealifetoday #cpraedfatraining #blscpraedfatraining #babysitterstraining #bestsmallbusinessNJ #redcross #savinglives #drowningprevention #savealife #cpr #lifeguard #lifeguardlife #lifeguardtraining

https://www.emccprtraining.com/a-legal-side-of-cpr/

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since I have written a blog. Many times individual people and businesses are not aware that they need to have cpr/aed/first aid training to meet local and state guidelines. I am biased, and feel that it shouldn’t be a local or state requirement to get trained. My belief is that it should be mandatory to be cpr/aed/first aid trained. These courses teach you how to prevent emergencies, recognize when someone is having an emergency, and how to respond to an emergency. The life saving skills taught are proven to save lives. Constant exposure and practice to providing care will boost confidence. So how do I choose the right company?

1. Scheduling

The first step is to find an emergency training school that fits your schedule. Make sure that the company actually has an instructor ready to teach your teams. Many times training schools say they are available but than flock to social media looking to find someone. It is not always a good business practice as honesty and service fulfillment is a necessity.

2. Price

The cost of training depends on a few factors. These factors include the cost to advertise your class, the cost to process your certification, the cost of equipment, insurance, payment to instructors, travel fees, office lease, etc. The market shows CPR/AED/ First aid training prices ranging from $40-126 per person. Consumers are not aware that different curriculums charge more money for their certifications to be processed, and format of their participant manuals. Buyers be aware that cheaper classes do not always necessarily provide top notch training. Sometimes they cut corners to keep the cost down. Do your homework and talk to friends, colleagues, employers, and family members.

3. Online Reviews

Online reviews are a good thing to read, but take them with a grain of salt. It is very hard to get customers to fill out surveys. Customers want to write reviews when they want to share a concern or a negative experience they had with the organization. At the end, you need to do your own homework.

4. Are their instructors certified to teach the courses that are being advertised.

Talk to any AHA, red cross, or ASHI instructor, and they will tell you that they have to teach and re-certify every 2 years to maintain their abilities to teach the public. Some organizations require online updates in addition to in-person training to keep knowledge and skills up to date.

5. Is the emergency training school licensed and insured

AHA / ASHI instructors have to be aligned with a training center in order to teach classes. The training centers usually carry professional liability insurance, while some carry general liability and worker’s compensation insurance. It all depends in how the AHA/ASHI instructors are classified.

Red Cross instructors have to be on an AP ( Authorized Provider ) or an LTP ( Licensed Training Provider) agreement to teach classes. AP’s and LTP’s are the training centers. Red cross training centers should have professional liability insurance and may carry general liability or worker’s compensation insurance.

5. Service agreements ( contracts)

A good emergency training center should be able to provide their clients a service agreement that clearly specifies the exact services being agreed too. Good service agreements offer ways out of the agreement if the consumer and the business want to party ways. They also clearly state what “they” are responsible for in regards to your training and how they will work with your team to ensure high quality training.

6. Training schools should be active consultants by informing their clients of changes in certification requirements and life-saving skills.

Self explanatory.

7. Certifications should be processed with the appropriate curriculum taken.

For example, an American Red Cross certification should have the American Red Cross Logo, the name of the participant, the name of the instructor, a certification code, and a QR code.

8. Online certifications are for knowledge and education, but do NOT meet state requirements in most states

Customers must participate in either a full day in-person class with supervision from a trained instructor or a hybrid class ( blended learning ) where half of the class is completed online and the other portion is completed in person under the supervision of a trained instructor.

For more ways to determine an appropriate training school, contact me. I want to get to know you and your teams, your training needs, and any pressing questions you may have.

Justin

Happy Labor Day to everyone!

The 2019 Summer season is coming to an end. This summer was filled with many laughs, moments of excitement, frustrations for some, and maybe even some tears. All in all, I believe that it was a good summer.

I want to congratulate all of the local day camps, aquatic facilities, and commercial pool companies that I have had the pleasure of working with this past season. I want to commend each of your teams with the hard work you have done by keeping your staff on your toes as well as keeping your facilities safe!

I know that I am going to personally miss my team of lifeguards this summer. I learned a lot from them this past season. I want to thank all of my lifeguards that my team of instructors and I had the pleasure to train this past season. Every single one of these guards loves what they do. These guards make me love what I do by continuing to teach lifeguard training classes to the NXT generation of guards.

For some of these guards, this will be their very last summer on the stands as they have graduated college and they are ready to move onto the next chapter of their lives. Many of them will start a new full time career, while others get into a specialized graduate program to further their dreams and desires. I hope that being a lifeguard raised your confidence in your own abilities, created new friendships, or taught you skills that you would have never learned in a different summer job. Just know that you will always be a lifeguard at heart and will never forget #howtosavealife .

For those guards that will be returning to your facility for next summer, let the fun begin. We have much to learn, do, and prepare for to enjoy our summer. However, the teamwork and effort will continue to grow stronger.

So what’s next on the agenda during the off season?

What do you do during the year?

These are many of the questions I get every year.

#Bynatureandbyheart I am a teacher who works year round with kids. Being a teacher is what allowed me to do everything I am doing today. I would not change anything in the world. Besides teaching the #Littles ( credit goes to Anne Marie R. For this code name for elementary students in terms of endearment) , I will be continuing my graduate school education at Rutger’s GSE in special education to continue my abilities to be a better teacher. I also run my business year round. Cpr/AED/ First aid, babysitters training, and other classes will be running.

I am working on hiring additional instructors to train my clients in lifesaving techniques . Apply if interested.

I will be preparing for the winter and spring 2020 schedules to kick of the 2020 summer season.

Look for me at EB Day 2019 to get many of you interested in taking certification classes. Other projects that I will be working on outside of school hours include:

1. Finding an updated text messaging service to manage customer leads and returning customers.
2. Offering the in-person Lifeguard Management Course to help individuals and corporate clients meet the NJ bather code regulations.
3. Training new instructors.
4. Finding more clients and groups who want to be trained.
5. Streamlining expenses and cutting unnecessary expenses.
6. Consulting for aquatic facilities l.
7. Lucky number 7 growing the business to reach new heights.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube etc.

Website to register for classes 💪 sign up for trainings

Justin

It is never safe to play any games that involve any dares in the pool. Does your staff know where the emergency pump button is? #certificationsforlifeinc #toparcprovider #toparcinstructors #bestemergencytrainingschool #learningtosavealifetoday #cpraedfatraining #blscpraedfatraining #babysitterstraining #bestsmallbusinessNJ #redcross #savinglives #drowningprevention #savealife #cpr #lifeguard #lifeguardlife #lifeguardtraining

https://apple.news/AsfM_f9CqRs61_WQEKATSWA