certification questions

christineka

New member
How many days is the tech course? How many hours a day? I'm looking into it because my baby is getting older and I think she could live without me for awhile. I found the national cps certification website and I see the fee appears to only be $75. Is that right? If my sales come through, I should make that much money in a week or two.
 
ADS

msg221

Well-known member
It's a four day course, 8 hours a day. Most of the courses here are M-Th but I happened to find one that was on a Friday & Saturday, two weeks in a row. Much better for me since I work full time. The first three days are classroom instruction and hands on experience with seats and installing, etc. The last day we did a seat check event that was approximately 4 hours. And yes, it was $75.
 

Kac

Ambassador - CPS Technician
Mine was 8:30-4:30 on Thursday and Friday and then the following Thursday and Friday. Mine was $70 or $75, I can't remember.
 

lorismurph

Senior Community Member
Mine was $120! That was 4 1/2 years ago. It was here in SLC so I didn't need hotel. They had breakfast, lunch, and snacks there. It was M-Th from about 8:30-4:30ish. The first 3 days were all classroom & hands-on and then the last day was 1/2 day of testing and then 1/2 day of a car-seat clinic checking seats at BRU. You'd be great! You already know everything (except maybe the FMVSS stuff).
The kids are the hardest thing (were for me) but I found plenty of willing neighbors that would trade like 1/2 day of babysitting for FREE car-seat checks for life (duh, I'd do that anyway lol).
It would be great to have you on board with us!
 

christineka

New member
I emailed to ask some more questions. I'm going to talk to dh and see if he couldn't possibly take some days off of work. This class is half day Tuesday, then Wed, Thurs 8-5, and Friday 9-6.
 

christineka

New member
This year there are two courses in my area- one in March and another in October. I am going to see if I can arrange childcare for March. I don't want to have to wait any longer.
 

crunchierthanthou

New member
How many days is the tech course? How many hours a day? I'm looking into it because my baby is getting older and I think she could live without me for awhile. I found the national cps certification website and I see the fee appears to only be $75. Is that right? If my sales come through, I should make that much money in a week or two.


It's $75 for the national certification. I believe the $75 listed on the course page is an additional local fee. It covers lunches and supplies for the week. That was my experience, anyway (except it was $60 and $60 before the national fee went up).
 

bobandjess99

Senior Community Member
I was lucky, caught a course in my hometown, with no additional local fees, so I just paid $60 for teh course. I think it was a thurs/fri for 2 consecutive weeks.
 

christineka

New member
It's $75 for the national certification. I believe the $75 listed on the course page is an additional local fee. It covers lunches and supplies for the week. That was my experience, anyway (except it was $60 and $60 before the national fee went up).

Thanks! I'll ask more detail on the cost.
 

soccer_widow

New member
I just took the SLC course in October. It was Tuesday- Friday. 12-5 on Tues, and the other days it was 8-5. I paid $75(total), and they had breakfast, lunch and lots of snacks.

Eta: Now that I think about it, I believe it was 9-6 on Friday because of the seat check event.
 
Last edited:

griffinmom

Moderator - CPST Instructor
Some classes have fees in addition to the SafeKids fees for the course. The additional fees (if any) vary greatly. Sometimes it can be $20 or $1000. The ones that cost more aren't necessarily better (sometimes they are), but the courses you pay more for have to pay for the space for the class, the instructors, food, etc. Some agencies teaching the course don't have those expenses.
 

msg221

Well-known member
There weren't any additional fees for my course. They provided drinks and snacks but we were on our own for lunch.
 

Carrie_R

Ambassador - CPS Technician
I traveled to a course that was just the $75 (no local fee) and it was just three days. W, T, F, and F we finished early. I'm glad I knew what I did going in, I'll say that. But it's possible for it to be less than the standard 4-5 days. We were given a lunch break each day to go to one of the nearest towns and get our own lunch -- nothing was provided for us.
 

christineka

New member
It's $75 plus $75. There are scholarships available. I'm going to pursue a scholarship. Dh says he has a major work project that needs to be completed by April 1st so he probably can't take time off. I'm going to look at babysitting options as well as beg dh to beg for the time off or at least some of the time. It's only three and a half days. Dh does think this is an excellent idea of mine, though.
 

Carrie_R

Ambassador - CPS Technician
Glad to hear DH is supporting you! :) I definitely think you should do it. Hopefully if you can't work it out for the first course, there's enough notice that DH can work it out for October.
 

Mom2FiveGirls

Active member
The course I took was $75 and it was M-T 8:00-5:00. It was a controlled course. They provided drinks and snacks every day and lunch on the last day (safe kids provided them). We also got a water bottle, t-shirt, and a few other goodies from safe kids, the fire department where the course was, etc.
 

christineka

New member
On Saturday I requested to take the class. I have to be approved. How long might that take? Would they not approve me because I don't have to take the class for my job? I wanna know!
 

msg221

Well-known member
Is it a controlled course? If there is room in the class, they may allow you to. I was in a regular course and still was the only one there who took it there for my own knowledge and interest; the rest of the class were first responders, nurses, a young woman who was going to be managing a children's boutique, a woman who works with immigrant families and the most interesting, two guys who work at an auto body shop and they were going to do seat checks there. Brilliant idea I think. People who end up having collision repair done, then hopefully have new seats that need to be installed in their vehicle when it's done being repaired can have someone actually qualified do it! That was the second time I'd seen that. I took my seats to be checked at another auto repair/body place when I first got my RN. The tech had never seen a RN before!
 

luckyclov

New member
In my area, they seem to run M-F, from 8:30 to 4 or 4:30. I think Friday is dedicated to a seat check event or something like that.

I'm still waiting for DH to coordinate some vacation time with me so I can have someone to "babysit" :)rolleyes:) my little guy so I can attend (I was told there's almost always availibility, esp. for "just moms"...whatever that's supposed to mean).
 

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