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Certified firearms instructor question
Sorry if this is not in the correct area.
Are any of you folks certified firearms instructors? If you are, did you just have to take the NRA course? Also how did you acquire students?
i have been very interested in becoming verified, and would appreciate someone with more knowledge on the subject to let me know the path you took, and how you liked it.
Check the NRA site for a local Instructor course. You need a Training Counselor to teach an Instructor course then you take a test and if you pass you become an Instructor.
I think we have some forum members here who may be able to help. As far as getting students you would be better off working with an established Instructor to get the wheels going.
Just my .02.
Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to Fight, he'll just kill you.
Thank you for the information, I appreciate it.
Yes and no. I had to PASS the course to get my certification ;-)Originally Posted by Bunny
There are a lot of ways to acquire students. Working in a gun shop, I am able to talk to new gun buyers and get them interested in taking my classes, which is the easiest way in my opinion. Soon, I'll start going around to other gun shops and dropping off propaganda and working out spiffs with their sales staff to incentivize them to sign people up for my class FOR me.
There are only a handful of people certified to TEACH the instructors class, but the guy that did my training offers them every other month or so. PM me if you'd like his contact info.
What are you wanting to teach? If you just want to run a CCW course, then the requirements are outlined in Colorado Revised Statues. For most people, NRA instructor suffices. Teaching above CCW requires a bit more, specifically experience, your previous training, and relevant and verifiable certifications in that specific discipline.
This is a good point that is worth reiterating.
If you want to teach something specific, you need to have specific training, experience, credentials to do so.
In my current job, a Soldier needs no less than 80 hours of instruction on how to be an instructor. This is just the basic certification to teach another Soldier on how to do something. When the specific instruction is included, Instructors have more than 200 hours of training just to get to the point where they are allowed to stand in front of another Soldier and teach the material. On top of all this, we conduct re-certifications monthly. At that point, each Instructor gets TOLD their recertification topic when they get to the podium.
The continuing education is important...
Just doing what I can to stay on this side of the dirt.
Different instructor certification programs have different levels of training and continuing ed requirements. Most of the NRA Instructor certification courses only require completing the class and successfully taking the test from a Training Counselor, with no continuing education requirement.
"The only real difference between the men and the boys, is the number and size, and cost of their toys."
NRA Life, GOA Life, SAF Life, CSSA Life, NRA Certified Instructor Circuits' Feedback
The NRA certifications are kind of like a learner's permit, but they in no way teach you to shoot, teach, or have any significant testing of such skills. If the NRA training counselor I had took us to the range, I would have worn a vest, really. If you want to teach, find a mentor and build a book of skills. You take classes from good instructors and then piece together your own set of info, style, etc. and move on. There are probably 10 people just here in COAR15 that took their first class from me and now teach/instruct. I hear from their students elements of what I taught them, and that is good. Replication with refinement and always be a willing student is a base fundamental to be a good instructor. After that, the fundamentals, practice and range time are what make someone a skilled shooter. You don't have to be AAA, High Master, GrandMaster to teach, but above average skills are pretty much mandatory.
Just like in shooting, there are maybe 5% of instructors that are really good, 10% that are admirably good and 85% that could not muster 50% on any real qualification course, in a match or in the field (just three different types of skillsets). Yes, I used percentages, and no they are not from any study, but I would bet they are pretty close to reality.
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