Your HLTAID014 Statement of Attainment doesn’t have an expiry date printed on it, and that’s exactly where plenty of site supervisors get caught out. If you’re wondering how long is HLTAID014 valid for, the short answer is the full course gets refreshed every 3 years and your CPR (HLTAID009) every 12 months. That timing comes from the codes of practice and your contracts, not the certificate.
And those dates get checked harder than they used to. Contractor management platforms like RapidGlobal, Cm3 and the Avetta-style systems look at your ticket dates before you’re let on site, and principal contractor prequalification and tenders name HLTAID014 and set their own currency rules on top. So does HLTAID014 expire? Not on paper, but when you’re a long way from the nearest QAS ambulance, being current is what actually counts.
This article walks you through where the 3-year and 12-month rules come from, what happens when a ticket lapses mid-project, and how to line up the whole crew’s renewal dates so they’re not scattered all over the calendar. If it’s the renewal process itself you’re after, that’s covered in our renewal guide. First Aid Alive runs HLTAID014 and the advanced first aid refresher across Brisbane and SEQ, with group and on-site options for crews that can’t be pulled off the job.
How Long Is HLTAID014 Valid For? The Short Answer
HLTAID014 Provide Advanced First Aid is refreshed every 3 years, with the CPR component (HLTAID009) refreshed every 12 months. Your Statement of Attainment has no expiry date printed on it. The 3-year and 12-month cycle comes from WorkSafe Queensland’s First aid in the workplace Code of Practice and from the requirements set by your employer or principal contractor.
- Full HLTAID014: Refresh every 3 years from the completion date on your Statement of Attainment
- CPR (HLTAID009): Refresh every 12 months
- Principal contractor or tender rules: May require a shorter refresher cycle, which takes priority for site access
- Mining and some high-risk sites: May require more frequent refresher training
Does HLTAID014 Actually Expire?
Plenty of supervisors only find this out when a portal knocks their ticket back. Does HLTAID014 expire? Technically no, but that answer won’t get you through the gate.
What Your Statement of Attainment Does and Doesn’t Say
Pull out your Statement of Attainment (SoA) and have a proper look at it. It records the unit code, the unit title, your completion date and the RTO number of whoever trained you. What it doesn’t have is an expiry date, anywhere on it.
That’s because a unit of competency doesn’t expire. You were deemed competent on that day, and that stays on your record for good. What lapses is its currency for workplace purposes, and that’s the bit your employer, your principal contractor and the portal actually care about.
The other trap is the unit code itself. If your SoA is from the older HLTAID003 and HLTAID007 era, a contractor management platform can reject it even when the date looks fine. The system’s checking the code as well as the date.
What’s on your Statement of Attainment
What it shows | What it means for you |
Unit code (e.g. HLTAID014) | Superseded codes can get rejected by portals |
Unit title | Provide Advanced First Aid |
Completion date | Your 3-year cycle is counted from here |
RTO number | Proves it came from a registered training organisation |
Expiry date | Not printed. Currency is set by codes of practice and contracts |
Where the 3-Year Rule Actually Comes From
The 3-year cycle doesn’t come from your certificate, and it doesn’t come from the training package either. It comes from two places:
- Safe Work Australia's model First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice
- WorkSafe Queensland's First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice
A code of practice isn’t law, fair enough. But courts can use it as evidence of what’s known about managing a risk, so it carries a lot more weight than most blokes on site give it credit for.
Why You’ll See Conflicting Answers Online
Google this one and you’ll get a real mixed bag. Some pages say HLTAID014 is good for 12 months, others say 3 years. Some pin the 3-year cycle on the Australian Resuscitation Council, which isn’t where it comes from, and a fair bit of what’s out there is from before 2021 and never got updated.
So if you’ve read two pages and got two different answers, you’re not going mad. Stick with the code of practice and whatever your contract says, because that’s what the portal and the auditor will check you against.
❤️ Good to know: CPR is the skill that fades first, so it's the one that comes back around every year.
Why CPR Runs on a 12-Month Cycle Inside Your HLTAID014
The full course runs on a 3-year cycle, but CPR is on a much shorter leash. It comes around every year, and there’s a good reason the CPR annual refresher gets treated differently to everything else you learnt.
CPR Skills Fade Faster Than the Rest of Your Training
CPR is a physical skill, and physical skills go stale quicker than knowledge does. Your compression depth drops off, your rate drifts, and your confidence takes a hit within months of doing the course.
Think of it like reversing a truck and dog trailer. Anyone can do it on the day they’re taught. Leave it a year and you’ll be jackknifing it all over the yard.
What the Cycle Looks Like Across Three Years
Once your HLTAID014 is done, this is roughly how the next three years play out:
When | What you do |
Year 1 | Full HLTAID014 |
Year 2 | CPR refresher (HLTAID009) |
Year 3 | CPR refresher (HLTAID009) |
Year 3 anniversary | Requalify HLTAID014 |
So you’re touching your CPR skills every single year, and doing the full course again once the 3 years are up.
Remote-Site Reality
On a lot of SEQ civil jobs, you’re a long way from the nearest QAS ambulance. That’s a long wait on the ground, and for that whole stretch your first aider’s CPR is the intervention. There’s no one else coming sooner.
That’s the real reason the 12-month cycle is worth sticking to. It’s not about keeping a portal happy. It’s about your first aider stepping in with the same confidence they walked out of the course with, even when it’s been a year since they last practised on a manikin.
⚖️ The rule of thumb: When the rules don't match, the stricter one decides whether you get on site.
Who Actually Decides Whether Your HLTAID014 Is Current on Site
This is where it gets a bit messy. First aid certificate validity in QLD isn’t decided by one body or one bit of paper. There’s a whole stack of them, and on any given day the one that matters most is usually the strictest.
WorkSafe Queensland and Your PCBU Duty
Under section 42 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld), the PCBU has to provide an adequate number of trained first aiders. PCBU stands for person conducting a business or undertaking, which on most sites means your employer.
So what counts as “adequate and current”? The code of practice is how auditors judge that. That’s why it keeps coming up, even though it’s not law itself.
Principal Contractor Prequalification and Tender Documents
Head contractors often name HLTAID014 in their prequalification and tender documents, and they set their own currency window while they’re at it. That window might not match the code of practice.
For site access, the contract wins, simple as that. If the contract says your ticket’s out, you’re not getting on, no matter what the code says.
Contractor Management Platforms
A lot of blokes assume the date the portal’s showing came from the RTO. Often it didn’t.
The applied date might be a contractor default or a platform default, not the RTO‘s. So log in and check what the portal’s actually enforcing before your mobilisation date sneaks up on you.
Sectors With Stricter Cycles
Some sectors run tighter cycles again. Mining, utilities and some government infrastructure contracts can ask for more frequent refreshers. If you’re working in any of those, check your site’s requirements rather than assuming the 3-year rule covers you.
Who sets the rules
Code of practice → PCBU → Principal contractor → Site or portal rules
⬇ The stricter rule applies
How the First Aid Units Compare
Here’s how HLTAID014 sits alongside the other first aid units on refresh cycles:
Unit | Title | Industry refresh cycle |
HLTAID009 | Provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation | 12 months |
HLTAID010 | Provide basic emergency life support | 3 years |
HLTAID011 | Provide first aid | 3 years (CPR 12 months) |
HLTAID012 | Provide first aid in an education and care setting | 3 years (CPR 12 months) |
HLTAID014 | Provide advanced first aid | 3 years (CPR 12 months) |
What Happens When a Ticket Lapses Mid-Project
Most supervisors don’t think about HLTAID014 expiry until it’s already happened. Usually it’s halfway through a job, when there’s no slack in the program to deal with it.
The Site Access Problem
The first thing you’ll notice is the gate. Once the portal flags your ticket, you’re blocked from site access, and if you’re the one holding the crew’s first aid cover, the crew can end up standing around idle while it gets sorted.
It doesn’t stop at this job either. A lapsed ticket on your record can put your prequalification at risk for the next tender, and that’s a much bigger cost than a refresher course.
The First Aid Coverage Gap
Then there’s the coverage side of it. If the person with the lapsed ticket is the only advanced first aider on shift, your first aid coverage may no longer be adequate for that site.
That’s the one that should bother you most. On a remote job a long way from QAS, a gap in coverage isn’t just a paperwork problem.
Getting Back on Track
The fix is simple enough: book a refresher as soon as you spot it and get your new Statement of Attainment uploaded. The full step-by-step is in our renewal guide.
👷 Supervisor tip: Stop managing tickets one at a time. Put the whole crew on one cycle.
How to Keep a Whole Crew’s HLTAID014 Current Without Losing Site Days
Keeping one ticket current is easy enough. Keeping a whole crew current, all on different dates, while you’re also running a job is where it falls apart. Here’s how to keep the advanced first aid refresher cycle under control without it eating into your site days.
Run a Qualifications Register With 90-Day Alerts
Before anything else, get every ticket into one place. SafetyCulture, Procore or even a plain spreadsheet will do. What matters is tracking both the 3-year and 12-month dates for each worker.
Then set alerts for 90 days out. That gives you enough runway to book around deliveries and wet-weather days instead of scrambling the week the portal goes red. Honestly, a register nobody checks is just a spreadsheet, so make the alerts do the remembering for you.
Line Up Renewal Dates With a Group Booking
Once everyone’s in the register, you’ll probably see the problem straight away. Dates are scattered all over the calendar because people joined the crew at different times.
One session fixes that. Put the whole crew through together and everyone ends up on the same cycle, so from then on you’re booking one date instead of chasing a dozen. First Aid Alive runs group and on-site training built for exactly this.
On-Site, Depot and Saturday Options
Pulling a crew off a live site costs you momentum as well as money. So bring the training to them instead, at your site shed or depot.
If weekdays just aren’t going to happen, Saturday sessions let supervisors and leading hands get it done without touching the program.
Same-Day Digital Statement of Attainment
This is the one that actually keeps crews working. Your digital Statement of Attainment is issued the same day.
No waiting on a certificate in the mail while blokes stand around at the gate.
Get Your Crew Current Before the Next Audit
So that’s the real answer. Your HLTAID014 doesn’t have an expiry date printed on it, but that doesn’t mean it’s good forever. The full course gets refreshed every 3 years and CPR every 12 months, and that cycle comes from the code of practice and your contracts, not the certificate.
On site, the date that counts is whichever rule is strictest. That could be the code of practice, your PCBU, your principal contractor or the portal at the gate. When they don’t line up, it’s usually the portal that tells you first.
And a lapsed ticket costs a lot more than a course does. Crews stand idle, the next tender gets harder to win, and if it’s your only advanced first aider on shift, your coverage takes a hit on a site that could be a long way from QAS.
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