Im looking into doing a fast track nvq 2 beauty therapy course, i googled this and the carlton intitue came up.
When i say fast track, i pressumed it would be about 15 - 20 weeks instead of a year, but the carlton institue claim to get you nvq 2 qualified in 4 days...is this right or am i reading it completly wrong.
As anyone done this course, im looking at the stockport one, is it a good course or rubbish, it claims to have small class sizes and all that, but i cant see how on earth a whole years course can be squeezed into 4 days.

It's rubbish, you will not learn much on fast track or i day courses. I've been there and done that then I spent much more money on proper beauty therapis training college. I would not recommend.

i haven't trained with them but i was going to train for my nvq like you so i was asking them lots and lots of questions. i had actually put the money aside and asked my grandad to take time off work so he could watch my 2 little ones but when it came to booking it in the end i just had a not so good feeling, i don't know why i didn't have a good feeling it was just one of those everything is telling me not to feelings kwim? *shrug*

the way it was explained to me was that they show you the practical side of it which is why there's just a couple of days for the course so that you can get insurance and then you do case studies which you submit as proof of your skills and the rest of the written work is done at home.

sorry i didn't give you any advice on the actual course haha i just wanted to let you know what i was told when i asked what the course was about to help you make sense of it there are lots of threads on here if you do a search and you can also phone them up and ask them any questions you might have, i always found them helpful and polite x

And how are you supposed to do case studies at home for electrolysis??!!

my advise would be to go and do an nvq over the course of a year, the time is invaluable as there is no way you can learn all the treatmenst ( i think it was 8 units in my nvq) over the course of 4 days. I would then go on and do additional advance courses in the treatments you want to offer from the nvq such as nvq 2 prob covers basic waxing, then do an advance course and use good wax just as perron rigot the wax queen is the go to lady. Same for the other units such as facials go on to dermalogica or eve taylor or susan moyneux (or whoever you want to use) and do their courses. Education is what makes us great therapists. It may take longer but by cutting corners in time isnt going to help you as a therapist to become confident and competant at what you do. It was worth every minute of the courses i did for my nvq level 2 and 3 and the assignments helped me loads along the way, yes sure it was a drag doing them but i found researching them for myself and putting things into words helped me to remember things like contraindications etc

good luck.

no point having a go at me... funnily enough i don't own or run the carlton courses. i have zero interest in offering electrolysis as a treatment so have no knowledge at all of what it involved, all i was saying is what i was told when i enquired about the nvq2 training. if you really feel that strongly about the course not being good enough then contact who ever gave them the ok for the course and complain. x

Sorry hun, it comes across as though I'm angry. Didn't mean to sound that way and in no way was I having a go at you. Just found it incomprehensible. Sorry xx

it's hard 'getting' what people are saying when it's all written down, sorry for reading it wrong! x

You two guys .. isn't it lovely when someone can say sorry and the other person can also realise they may have been a little hasty??

Seriously it makes such a change

Jacqui xx

do you think it would affect being employed though? would somebody say you couldnt work in their salon if you had only an intensive course? i am thinking about doing one of those courses x

I would never employ a therapist who had done a short fastrack course. You might have an nvq, but you would not have any commercial training. These courses are ok to do treatments on friends and family, but are nowhere near enough to work on a demanding public.

For fast track courses you go home and do the case studies. You can either pay tutors to watch you do case studies or learn how to do them and go and do them yourself and then write them up. Only after you have done the case studies and gone back and been assessed do you get your NVQ. How long you take to do that is upto and your motivation.

An NVQ is an NVQ - like a driving test or GCSE's - it doesn't matter how you got it, just tells people the standard you have achieved. They are the same for everyone.

Be wary of supplier or wholesaler training that is not accredited to get NVQ's (just insurance usually); they are often unsupervised and unverified.

In choosing a college choose one with a big reputation and lots of history not just a mobile number for a lecturer. Maybe one that offers a variety of course lengths because it shows that they are thinking of your learning style. It is all about you and your motivation. Do what suits you!

Hi Geeks

I have done a few courses with carlton although i didn't take them up on the NVQ thing as i wanted to work mobile. i would say however steer clear of the NVQ course with carlton as it is a 4 day course n the women that were on my courses but were there all week for the NVQ were absolutely knackered by the end of the week.

they only walked away with diplomas on the day! Not that they weren't proud coz i was very proud of my diplomas n i worked hard to get them.

However they then had to go awy and find people to do there case studies on! how stressful must that be to do all on your own... all them treatments ....

Go To College & Do A Full Year
that way if you have any ?s for your tutor they are on hand when you need them.

I hope someone listens to this advice as i dont think anyone would benefit from doin this NVQ course. sorry for the Rant

Nicolaxxx

Thanks for your replys, i dont think there is a quick or easy way around this, im just gonna go to my local college, i think its better in the long run.