About SkillsTrain
Who is SkillsTrain, and why does it keep turning up wherever emergency teams train?
The people who run into danger deserve the best training in the world, and it should not take an ocean to reach them. That belief has driven SkillsTrain since 2004.
The short version
Africa's most complete Fire Fighter, EMS and safety training resource specialist
In one place we bring you a full VR (virtual reality) training ecosystem, classroom fire, firefighter and emergency medical services courses, and specialist textbooks and ePubs imported from more than 20 of the world's leading publishers. We are an importer and distributor for accredited training facilities; we do not deliver or accredit training ourselves.
We are the only company in South Africa that combines all three under one roof. That is not a slogan. It is the thing our competitors cannot say. We started in 2004, and everything since has been built around one belief: the people who run into danger deserve the best training in the world, and it should not take an ocean to reach them.
Founder and Managing Director
Meet Linda Botha
Long before virtual reality entered the training room, Linda Botha understood a simple principle: people perform better when they have the right knowledge, in a form they can actually use.
Her story began in the mid 1990s with Impact Consultants, the training-materials business she founded and grew from the ground up, work that saw her named an Ernst and Young finalist for entrepreneurial spirit. In 2004 she brought that same instinct to SkillsTrain Distribution.
Her background in advertising and marketing turned out to be an unusual advantage. She learned early that in this industry nobody buys a product sheet. They buy a relationship, from someone who understands their world and will still answer the phone two years after the sale. Over two decades Linda built exactly that, along with the exclusive distribution relationships to go with it:
- Exclusive distributor for FLAIM. FLAIM Systems, from Australia, makes the world-leading VR firefighting training system, underwritten by Darley and supplied on a rental model only.
- Exclusive distributor for FlashGroup XR, the multidiscipline fire, rescue, police and medical simulation platform.
- Exclusive South African distributor for Action Training Systems (ATS USA), the United States developer behind our classroom fire and EMS courses.
- Relationships with more than 20 global publishers for the specialist firefighting, rescue and EMS textbooks that fire colleges and academies teach from.
A 100% women-owned business, SkillsTrain is committed to opening doors for women and making specialised education more accessible, work that led Linda into the Women Presidents' Organization. Today that founding principle is playing out on a new frontier, bringing virtual reality and immersive training resources to South African instructors so learners can practise high-stakes skills safely before they ever face them for real.
What SkillsTrain does, in three parts
Three pillars, one complete ecosystem
Everything we offer falls under one of three pillars. Each has its own page with the full detail. Here is the short version.
Practise the worst day, safely
A complete virtual reality training ecosystem for firefighting, rescue, police and medical, through world-class platforms: FLAIM, FlashGroup and VR Patients. Your team can rehearse the worst day of their career every week, with nobody getting hurt.
Explore VR Training
Better classroom courses
Interactive firefighting and emergency medical services courses from Action Training Systems (ATS USA), delivered as a classroom streaming subscription or individual online access codes, with the instructor videos, PowerPoints and facilitator guides your trainers teach from.
Explore Classroom Training
The manuals courses are built on
Specialist firefighting, rescue and EMS textbooks and ePubs from Jones and Bartlett, NFPA and more than 20 global specialised publishers, including the medical texts Mosby's Paramedic Textbook and Nancy Caroline. These are the validated manuals certification courses are built on.
Explore Textbooks and ePubs100% women-owned
Women-owned, in an industry that rarely is
Fire, rescue and emergency services is one of the most male-dominated sectors there is. SkillsTrain is a 100% women-owned business operating right at the centre of it, and has been for over 20 years. That is not a marketing line added last year. It is who we have always been.
We say it plainly because it matters to the clients who care about it, from procurement teams with supplier-diversity targets to the many women coming up through fire and EMS who rarely see themselves reflected at the top of a technical supplier. When you work with SkillsTrain, you are working with a company that got here by being good at the work, and stayed here by being trusted.
Recognition on record
More than 25 years of recognition
SkillsTrain and Linda Botha have been recognised by business and industry bodies since the 1990s. A selection of the awards and nominations on record:
These sit alongside more than 25 years of industry recognition and Linda's membership of the Women Presidents' Organization.
Why organisations choose us
Four reasons clients stay
Nobody else combines all three
You could buy VR from one supplier, online courses from another and books from a third. Or you could work with the one company in South Africa that offers the complete ecosystem and can build a programme around it.
Proven products, credited honestly
We do not distribute anything we would not put in front of our own family. When a figure belongs to a partner, we say so. FLAIM, for example, was independently evaluated by TEEX, the Texas A and M Engineering Extension Service.
A relationship business
Linda built SkillsTrain on the idea that people buy from people they trust. More than 20 years of publisher and vendor relationships, and clients who keep coming back, are the proof that it works.
Close enough to help
International content, local support. When something needs sorting, you are talking to the people who imported it, not a call centre on another continent.
Let's talk about your training
Tell us who you train
Whether you want to see VR training in action, run world-class courses in your classroom, or track down a textbook you cannot find anywhere else, the fastest way forward is a conversation. Tell us who you train and what you are trying to achieve, and we will point you to the right mix.