You'll need to sit the CASA PIRC (PMI) exam before finishing your flight instructor course. Or possess a CertIV in training and assessment.
The FIR course is subject to the syllabus of the school you choose. Generally you'll be looking at 200hours classroom and 30hours dual including a flight test with an FIR ATO. None of it's very hard, just time consuming. Different quailities of flight instructor are produced from different schools from my observations.
I'd wager most training schools won't be having the large intakes of instructors like they used to. Prior to covid my school would take just about any grade of FIR with any experience. Now we're not taking any onboard. Flight instructors won't be leaving schools as they have no RPT jobs to go to, and experienced instructors will be returning from stood down RPT jobs.
All the same, if you like aviating, it's a good rating to earn.
Last edited by Styx75; 19th May 2020 at 08:38.