Courses for Passenger Assistants

In situations where passengers may be considered vulnerable organisations may decide to provide a Passenger Assistant in addition to the driver.  In some organisations they may be known as Escorts.

Most organisations have realised that they, as well as their Drivers and Passenger Assistants, share in a Duty of Care to their passengers and that to enable Passenger Assistants to work effectively, and exercise that Duty of Care, they deserve training. 

An effective, and well rounded, solution to that training need is PATS (The Passenger Assistant Training Scheme), a sister training programme developed from MiDAS for minibus drivers.

Most PATS members also offer elements of the training to their Drivers, which they have found to be very beneficial.

With PATS there are a number of modular training courses available and an organisation would select those which met the training needs of their Passenger Assistants and Drivers.  In the latest round of PATS there are five modules.

• Module A: The Role of the Passenger Assistant
  This is the foundation module because it is a starting point for further training. It covers the role and responsibilities of a Passenger Assistant, including legal, practical and safety issues

• Module B1: Assisting Passengers with Disabilities
  This module includes general disability awareness and passenger assistance techniques 

• Module B2: Assisting Wheelchair Users who travel in their Wheelchairs
  This module includes boarding and alighting using passenger lifts or ramps and assisting wheelchair users to travel in their wheelchairs

• Module C1: Supervising Children and Young People with Special Needs
  This includes supervising children and young people with learning difficulties, autism, physical disabilities, sensory restrictions and emotional or behavioural difficulties

• Module C2: Working with Adults Who Require Care and Supervision
  This includes adult passengers with learning difficulties, dementia, physical disabilities, sensory restrictions and people in mental or emotional distress

Each module is followed by a multiple choice theory assessment and, in addition, the 'B' modules have Practical Skills Assessments.

Within PATS and MiDAS there are also two specialist one day modules that are available to both Passenger Assistants and MiDAS Drivers:

• Module D Emergency Aid
• Module E Manual Handling

Click on the relevant links for more details.

Advanced Training Services can arrange to carry out all of the above modules, on-site, for your Passenger Assistants and Drivers.  If you would like to discuss the possibility of a training programme please contact us. 

Alternatively we can arrange a training course for an in-house Trainer (known as a Passenger Assistant Trainer or PAT).  Click the PATS Trainer link for more details, or contact us.