Snake courses

There numerous providers of reptile courses of all configurations in Australia.
These include snake handler training and courses that teach people how to capture, control, relocate, and handle dangerously venomous snakes, which happen to be the most commonly seen snakes in most of the populated parts of Australia.
Included in south-eastern Australia are such well-known dangerous serpents as the Brown snake, black snake, Tiger snake, Death Adder, copperhead and Taipan.
Most courses will give students at least a description of all the relevant species and others, so that they will be able to identify them.
However a few of the more basic courses don't get quite that far. Most course providers of reptile relocation and snake handler courses are actually relatively inexperienced themselves and in all probability shouldn't be teaching others how to handle snakes.
For reasons related to patronage and corruption, wildlife departments in several Australian states have dropped all checks and balances and issued course teaching permits to people with literally no experience with snakes whatsoever.
As a direct result of this, a disproportionate number of graduates run off and get bitten by venomous snakes shortly after completing such a course.
In recent years, Australia's snakebite rate has escalated and the number of deaths shot up from an average of 1.5 deaths a year to more than 6 a year, the majority of deaths being people who have recently completed accredited snake handler courses. In other words if you are going to do a snake handler course anywhere in Australia to learn proper reptile handling, it is suggested that you check the credentials of the teacher first. Don't worry about rogues who pay $2K to be able to claim RTO status as this is meaningless in terms of how good the course actually is.
Likewise for those who claim to be the sole provider for a wildlife rescue organisation such as WIRES or similar.
Again you will find the provider has paid money for the privilidge.
As a rule you will find that the better course providers do not need to pay money for recognition as such by irrelevant groups.
These providers will be known throughout Australia as reptile experts and cited as such in all the major texts and books on the subject.
The best test of expertise of any course provider is not their own company website, as this will always give a glowing testimonial, but rather to check the major texts on Australian venomous snakes.
If your provider is cited and named within the book as an authority and expert, you can be assured that your course teacher is the real deal.
On the other hand if your potential teacher is effectively unknown within professional herpetology, it is a safe bet that they are unknown for a reason and should not be dealt with. This is because a single mistake with a venomous snake can be fatal and there is no way you want to make one.
Thus it's better to get it right the first time!