Brentwood Academy (Carlton Institute)???

[Irishhoney]

hi everyone

I am starting a course in massage (NVQ Level 3 and VTCT) at the Brentwood Academy (Carlton Institute) this Monday and am just wondering if there is anybody out there who has trained at the Brentwood Academy or even maybe on the same course??

I could really do with some positive comments about it please :cry: as was another forum and they are pretty much telling me what a massive mistake I've made but I thought it was the best choice for me.

x

 

[honeymummy]

Hi.
I did my VTCT level 2 and three beauty there before it merged with carlton, it is a fabulous academy!
When it merged with carlton i did the ear candling and hot stone massage.
you wont regret it!
The classes are smaller and you get more attention, thats why i chose to travel all the way thee instead of my local college, which isnt that great.
Hopefully your tutor will be fiona Cahpman, if its her, she is a lovely person and fantastic tutor.
all the best for Monday and let me know how you get on! xx

 

[chocolatepickle]

I never trained there myself but friend did and was happy. That was a few years ago but I havent heard anything negative about it.

 

[jcpark]

VCTC Level 3 is the basic industry standard, but the courses vary considerably in what they teach and how prepared you will be to make a career as a massage therapist. Some of the fast track courses are IMO woefully inadequate. Yes, you may learn a massage routine (although you will obviously need to put in plenty of practice afterwards) but they don't teach you how to massage. Massage is so much more than just a series of movements.

 

[hippy-chick]

VCTC Level 3 is the basic industry standard, but the courses vary considerably in what they teach and how prepared you will be to make a career as a massage therapist. Some of the fast track courses are IMO woefully inadequate. Yes, you may learn a massage routine (although you will obviously need to put in plenty of practice afterwards) but they don't teach you how to massage. Massage is so much more than just a series of movements.

I could say the same about FE college, when I did my Swedish massage course I came out of college with minimum skills, my first paying client laughed in my face! IMO 30+ week courses in FE colleges aren't so great.

 

[jcpark]

I could say the same about FE college, when I did my Swedish massage course I came out of college with minimum skills, my first paying client laughed in my face! IMO 30+ week courses in FE colleges aren't so great.

I completely agree, which is why I said it is so dependant on the tutor, even with industry standard courses like VTCT and ITEC. I employ massage therapists and the number who aren't up to scratch heavily outweigh those that I am prepared to let loose on my corporate clients. And I think the worst thing to happen in this industry is these fast track one and two day courses, which I believe are the ones that Carlton do.

A quick look shows that the Brentwood Academy offer a 5 day VCTC course in Massage which consists of 2 days massage, one day IHM, one day Aromathearpy and one day Hot Stones. It also boast that you can earn up to £50 her hour! That amount of time training is fine for home use on friends and family but woefully inadequate for professional training. It is appalling and one of the reasons why our industry standards are very poor compared with other western countries. Sadly having therapists giving 'professional' treatments with this level of training does our industry no favours, although on a purely selfish note, it certainly helps my business because I've lost count of the number of clients who are relieved to find someone who gives a decent massage!

The problem is that good training is not cheap so people opt for these short, cheap courses. However, I think it's important to remember that no quality training is cheap. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to do the osteopathy training I originally wanted to do due to the cost (around £25,000) back then, and went into massage therapy instead.

There is a movement towards improving industry standards though, so I suspect that hopefully, these kind of diploma courses will be a thing of the past.

 

[Irishhoney]

thanks for your responses everyone. I've just had enough of one particular website forum that seems intent on telling me I've made the wrong choice of course to pursue a career in massage therapy.

They are telling me that the NVQ Level 3 in Massage at the Brentwood Academy 'is a beauty qualification and NOT a massage qualification and that it is worth noting that the course you are doing is for the beauty therapy industry (you can join the Beauty Guild and the BABTAC (British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology once you complete it), not the massage industry. You will most likely find you will NOT be able to upgrade it with more massage qualification, so for more formal massage qualifications you will be starting from scratch as far as hours go.'

So this course is going to be a complete waste of my time and money if I want to practice as a massage therapist alongside my Reiki???? I am extremely upset about this and considering cancelling the course but think I will now be out of pocket for what I've paid as dont think they will refund me the money and I also have a week off work to do it!

I want to be a holistic massage therapist mainly and would consider doing beauty so maybe it isnt the end of the world if I just do it.

Please help as feel like head is going to explode with confusion now! :irked:

 

[jcpark]

Unfortunately, what they have said on the other forum is right - a two day course will not give you sufficient knowledge to become a massage therapist.

I feel very sad and frustrated with many of these courses because they really aren't enough. I employ massage therapists for my corporate business and I have to turn away most because their 'qualifications' are insufficient. It is so unfair because unsuspecting students have gone on these courses in good faith. I qualified in sports massage nearly 20 years ago and there was no such things as these one and two day courses. It is a sad reflection on the industry that they have taken off and there is no doubt in my mind that standards have declined because of them.

I hope I am not going to upset anyone by saying this as I know this is a beauty based forum, but massage therapy is very different to the massage offered by beauty therapists. Sadly there is no distinction as far as the general public is concerned, hence the confusion, but the learning of a massage routine is pretty insignificant in massage therapy.

It obviously depends on what you want to do, but I would be very concerned that you can learn how to massage (to a professional standard) in two days. In addition, you will be learning IHM in one day, hot stone massage in one day, and aromatherapy in one day. Even learning just the basics is a huge amount of information to take in and retain over five days.

Just to illustrate my point, it took me 250 hours of classroom study, many more of home study and practice and 50 case histories to qualify in aromatherapy - how can you learn that in one day I have no idea. Nor can I see how you can compare the treatment I would provide a client with that given by someone who has learnt aromatherapy in a day.

 

[Irishhoney]

ok thank you for that info. I just needed to hear somebody else say it to fully understand the choice I have made. To be honest I am still happy to be doing this course as now I think about it, I realise that I don't want to be solely a massage therapist - I want to do lots of different holistic therapies and this is still a qualification in that direction and will give me the experience I need to start. Maybe after doing this course I will be able to make a choice on what therapy I'd like to focus on and go from there. Its not a waste of money if I am learning from it and an NVQ / VTCT can't be a bad thing to have after my name.

I am already a Reiki practitioner so who knows what doors this new qualification could open?? Time to start thinking positively and move forwards with this!! :lol:xx

 

[jcpark]

I do wish you luck, but I think the problem is that with the short training you will receive you will not be equipped to give a decent treatment, regardless of the 'qualification' and letters you have. And it is highly unlikely that 5 intensive days to cover 4 different therapies will leave you confident enough to give a professional treatment.
It is not easy to make a career in massage therapy and many fall by the wayside.

Rather than look on this as a qualification I would look at it as taster courses to see what area you would like to go in. From there you can then do further professional courses in your chosen therapy(s).

 

[Scottishsarah]

Don't give up hope, you'll have had a great start to your massage training, had an overview and a try of several different techniques and be better equipped to decide what to study in more detail.

A great therapist never stops learning and improving what they do, so you'll be doing a lot of different courses over the next few years.
There are some absolutely fantastic independent trainers out there, I did a Sports and Remedial course with the Western School of Massage (in Glasgow unfortunately, although one girl was travelling up from Birmingham every month) with John Lamont, and they run a basic massage skills course, 1 weekend a month for 6 months (I think), and their students come out knowing a heck of a lot more than my college course covered, so something like that down South would be amazing,does anyone know of anything similar?

You've paid for your course, so go along and get the most out of it that you can.

S xx

p.s. if you ever want to do a reiki treatment swap, I'm in Loughton!!

 

[Irishhoney]

thanks so much Sarah this is how I feel now too and yes would definitely be interested in doing a Reiki treatment swap with you sometime! I could definitely do with some waxing! haha xx