In my state, NRA certification is the legal requirement for recognition as a CCW permit instructor. It is just a bar to clear that has become an objective criteria for qualification -- similar to the CCW course and test itself for students. Students would certainly be advised to obtain additional and further training. In fact, students would be well advised to get a substantial amount of training before they take the CCW class/test because it is not an introduction to handguns or handgun shooting. Since the CCW class is very basic, the important idea is that students should go beyond it, whether they learn good handgun technique and legal issues surrounding use of force before or afterward, and either way, they should continue training because these skills are perishable. Similarly, and more to the point of the original question, instructors should go beyond the most basic NRA certification and the way to do that is with instructor development courses and if possible, a mentorship with an instructor at an advanced level. I've been fortunate to have been able to attend a number of 'famous' 'big-name' academies/schools and in every one of them there are instructor development classes offered. What's more, in every case, I saw instructors working at the highest levels who had learned their trade under the personal attention of Jeff Cooper and Masaad Ayoob for examples. These people have names for themselves today, and now there is another generation of instructors that are working for them. I don't mean that working for someone with "celebrity" status is essential to making progress. My point is that "going it alone," is not the path to success for most people. There are a lot of good instructors with tremendous depth of experience who don't get their names published as often as others -- by all means, learn from them. Just don't try to re-invent the wheel.
