Talk with our experts today, call for a friendly chat on
Dorset & Hampshire Branch: 01202 873730
Head Office: 01249 814528
Talk with our experts today, call for a friendly chat on
Dorset & Hampshire Branch: 01202 873730
Head Office: 01249 814528
The Stairlift Academy is our training programme for occupational therapists, OT assistants, grants officers, housing surveyors and adaptations professionals.
It grew out of a single training day we ran for a local OT team back in 2004. The demand for more sessions was immediate, and what started as a presentation became a full seminar. Over twenty years on, it is still running — because the knowledge gap it fills is still real.
The Stairlift Assessment Seminar gives you the practical skills and product knowledge to assess your clients with confidence and recommend the right lifting solution first time.
You will cover:
How to take accurate client measurements and staircase dimensions. How to assess a client's mobility, posture and transfer ability in relation to lift suitability. The difference between straight, curved, outdoor and specialist stairlift configurations. When a stairlift is not the right answer and what alternatives to consider. How to document your clinical reasoning clearly, including for DFG applications where you may need to justify a specification to a grants officer.
By the end of the session you will have hands-on experience with live equipment, not just slides and diagrams.
Our seminars run at our showrooms in Calne, Wiltshire and Ferndown, Dorset. Our locations have a range of live demonstration equipment including straight and curved stairlifts, through-floor homelifts and platform lifts.
Sessions are small group, hands-on and practical. You will leave with a CPD certificate and the kind of product knowledge that only comes from getting your hands on the equipment.
We do not have fixed dates yet for the next sessions. If you email us at [email protected] we'll be sure to let you know when our next session becomes available.
NEXT SESSION: Calne Showroom - 3rd June 2026 - FULLY BOOKED
We are currently re-recording our online Stairlift Assessment Seminar to bring it fully up to date. When it launches it will be available as a paid course through the Stairlift Academy platform, which is ideal if you are outside our coverage area or need flexible access around your schedule.
If you want to be notified when the online course is available, register your interest by emailing us at [email protected] and we will keep you informed.
The Stairlift Academy is run with the expertise of Coral and Colin, the directors of 1st Choice Stairlifts. Between them they have over 60 years of experience in the lift industry, working for manufacturers, running their own lift installation business, and training professionals since the company started.
Colin is an NVQ qualified lift engineer and both are Trusted Product Assessors. The training content is not pulled from a manufacturer's brochure. It is built from real installation experience, real clinical scenarios, and years of working alongside OTs, Grants Officers and Housing Surveyors in the field.
25 Harris Road, Porte Marsh Industrial Estate, Calne, Wiltshire, SN11 9PT
Showroom Open: Mon-Fri 08:30 to 17:00
Emergency Out of Hours Repairs: 365 days a year
Unit E6, 9 Nimrod Way, Ferndown Industrial Estate, Ferndown, Dorset, BH21 7UH
Showroom Open: Mon, Tues, Thurs 08.30 to 15.30, Friday 8:30 -13:00
**Please note we currently install and service stairlifts within our coverage area, click here to see our coverage area