In the CEO Series, Resuscitation Australia’s Chief Executive Officer, Ebony-Maria Levy, sets out the thinking behind the decisions that shape how we work. In this piece, she explains why we pay the people who deliver our Instructor Accreditation Program.
Resuscitation Australia is proud to remunerate the Instructor Development Coaches (IDCs) who contribute their time, skills and expertise to our Instructor Accreditation Program (IAP).
Why fair remuneration matters
Fair remuneration is a form of recognition. It says, plainly and without qualification, that a person’s expertise has value and that the organisation benefiting from it is prepared to stand behind that value with more than words. In a field like ours, where the quality of instruction ultimately shapes the quality of care patients receive, the expertise our IDCs bring is foundational.
Paying people properly also protects the sustainability of our important work in this space. Instructors have careers, families and financial obligations of their own. When an organisation expects that expertise to be donated indefinitely, it narrows the pool of people who can afford to contribute to those who happen to have the means to work for free. That is neither fair to individuals nor healthy for the sector. As far as we’re concerned, fair pay keeps the door open to more instructors, not just those who feel as though they can absorb the lost income.
Our courses run on more than goodwill
Resuscitation Australia feels privileged to engage IDCs to facilitate the IAP and is consistently impressed by the passion and commitment shown by IDCs for the IAP. The work is impactful, and we understand that it carries intrinsic satisfactions of its own – we’ve heard IDCs describe the reward of coaching new instructors, witnessing the ‘aha’ moments, the collegiality of the program, and the satisfaction of knowing that high quality ALS instruction very likely means better patient care. While those satisfactions are real and we do not take them lightly, they do not replace payment. Time spent in participant-facing course facilitation is time worked, and, in our view, should be compensated.
We also recognise that the rates we offer do not necessarily compare to the income many of our IDCs could earn in clinical practice, and we are sincerely grateful to every IDC who chooses to invest in the development of others, despite that. It is worth celebrating, too, that IDCs come together on an equal footing, irrespective of their scope of practice, united by a shared commitment to supporting the new generation of instructors emerging in our field.
The case for remunerating IDCs on fee-charging courses
Where Resuscitation Australia charges participants a fee to attend a course like the Instructor Accreditation Program, that course generates revenue. The IDCs who deliver it are doing work that is integral to producing that revenue. On any honest reading of the arrangement, they are working, and they should be paid for it.
Rates of pay apply uniformly to all IDCs for the service they provide, irrespective of their individual scope of practice. This is a deliberate choice. Our IDCs are exemplary, and every one of them delivers the same high-quality training experience participants expect from Resuscitation Australia’s Faculty.
IDC pay rates increased by 8.42%
From 1 July 2026, IDCs are engaged under the auspices of the Educational Services (Post-Secondary Education) Award (MA000075). This award provides a clear and appropriate framework for the work our IDCs perform. The award sets a floor, not a ceiling, and Resuscitation Australia continues to pay generously in excess of the rates stipulated in the award.
Resuscitation Australia has also increased the IDC rate by 8.42%, reflecting the combined movement in the Post-Secondary Education Award across the past two years:
• 3.5% from the 2024–25 Annual Wage Review (effective 1 July 2025); and
• 4.75% from the 2025–26 Annual Wage Review (effective 1 July 2026).
A social enterprise, built on respect
Resuscitation Australia is a social enterprise. Our purpose sits ahead of profit, and we are proud of that. But being mission-driven is not a reason to ask more of our people while offering them less. In our view it is the opposite; the heart of our social enterprise is ensuring that the people who make its work possible are treated with respect, and fair remuneration is the foundation on which respectful engagement is built.
We are candid about the trade-off: fully remunerating our instructors means our margins on the IAP are much slimmer than they would be if we relied on a volunteer workforce and we accept this willingly. We believe it is the right approach for us to take, and it is the standard we set for ourselves.
“Where we earn revenue from a course, the people who facilitate that training should be paid properly for it. Fair remuneration is the foundation of respectful engagement, and it is the standard we hold ourselves to.”
The pathway to full IDC status
We want to be clear about one part of the pathway. IDC placements themselves remain unpaid. A placement is a phase of training and skills-development, and it is the period against which a prospective IDC is assessed. Two successful placements are the pre-requisite for full IDC status, and it is at that point that remuneration is received. We treat placements this way not to withhold pay, but because they are genuinely developmental: the prospective IDC is learning and being evaluated, rather than delivering the service in their own right. Read more about the pathway to becoming an Instructor Development Coach here.
Welcoming new Instructor Development Coaches
We are actively recruiting new IDCs to the Instructor Accreditation Program. This is an opportunity to shape the standard of resuscitation instruction in your state or territory, supported by respected figures in the field, and once accredited, to be fairly paid for the contribution you make.
If you are considering joining us as an IDC, or you would simply like to understand how we engage and remunerate our Faculty, we are available for a confidential discussion and invite you to contact us.
To every member of our IDC Faculty, thank you. The care you bring to developing new instructors is tangible and reflected in the exceptional IAP participant evaluations you consistently receive. We are proud to stand alongside you, and prouder still to do so on fair terms.
