Assessment without the college course

[weezie]

I have been looking into hairdressing for a while now and am going to do a 18 week basic womens cutting course and a 16 week barbering course (simultaneously- one on tuesday nights and one on wednesday nights) at my local college to see if I would be any good but it doesn't lead to any formal qualifications although it is run by the same tutors as the NVQ course. I can't do the NVQ as my local one only runs in the day time and I have a mobile beauty business to run in the day.

I have been researching and most of the well know brand e.g wella, run top up hair courses but these require you to have an NVQ and after the evening courses I'd like to do more training obviously.

My questions are:

Many of the well known hairdressers claim to have no formal qualifications themselves- can they just get insurance as they are so well known? or how do they do it?

Also if you find you have a talent for hairdressing, practice loads but then want to work on the public can you get a qualification by going straight to the exams as say you would if you wanted to take a GCSE or A-Level (you'd just pay for the exam). Are there any hairdressing qualifications you can take if you don't go down the normal route if say you are trained by a skilled hairdresser as an apprentice but didn't get a formal qualification at the end?

Please advise me as I am just searching the internet to no avail!:hug:

 

[kennedia]

Not exactly sure of the answer here, but I think you would be expected to have formal qualifications to get insurance.

Also, I think you would struggle to buy professional products without proof of qualifications.

J xx

 

[weezie]

Not exactly sure of the answer here, but I think you would be expected to have formal qualifications to get insurance.

Also, I think you would struggle to buy professional products without proof of qualifications.

J xx

Thanks J, yes I would expect this, it would be very interested to know how those who never trained formally but are at the top of the profession get insurance!

I don't want to skip the training, I just want to fit it around my work! :hug:

 

[kennedia]

Thanks J, yes I would expect this, it would be very interested to know how those who never trained formally but are at the top of the profession get insurance!

:hug:

I don't know lol!!

I think it sounds like a really good introductory course to do though. My hunch though is that you would get a bit addicted and want to go on to further study. If it's just cutting then you should be able to buy all your kit without any problems, it's just when you start to get into bleaches, dyes etc that you need proof of qualification.

Why not ask the tutor about insurance. Alternatively The Guild may read this and answer. My hairdressing insurance is through them.

Joy x

 

[weezie]

Thanks Joy.

I have to buy kits with the courses, not sure how good they'll be though!?

I guess there must be a progression point from the course as otherwise why would they run it and what is the point of it beyond an inrtoduction if there is no qqualification-I will ask. I just thought it was a way of getting a taste of it! The course doesn't include colouring and all the colouring courses i've come across need a basic knowledge already- a bit of a dilemma! You are totally right though I should ask the tutors! :hug:

Louise

 

[persianista]

Years ago we did 3 year apprentiships. the hairdressers you refer to trained this way. it is recognised by the insurance companies in the same way as nvq's are now.
Unless you are willing to undertake at least nvq2, nowadays you will not get insured.
I trained 25 years ago and have the old C&G. Enough for insurance, but I now cannot teach unless I get a NVQ!!!!
If you want to wrk in a salon, nvq2 is the minimum.

 

[weezie]

Thanks Persianista ideally I am aiming to add a skill onto my own mobile business and eventually have a home salon when I live somewhere this is allowed-at the moment I live in flats in London but will be soon moving to the south coast to live in a bungalow if my plans work out!

I would guess I will need to have some experience working in a salon? but I would be working self employed after that. :hug:

It seems there is not a lot out there for adults who want to re-train, all the info is for school leavers. I already have salon experience from working in one for 3 years as a beauty therapist before I went out on my own so it's really the cutting and colouring that I would want to focus on not all the other training that a teenager fresh out of school would need too.

If you could just take the NVQ course exams instead of going back to college that would be helpful to you too as obviously you would pass as you are much more experienced than a new trainee.

The NVQ at my local college runs for 7 hours a week for a year, this seems like very little time in the classroom to me anyway but they spread it out over the whole year.

 

[bronzebrunette]

i think most of the hairdressers your talking about would have learned working in salons. but you could search about and see what other colleges offer where you stay, ie you could study part-time during the day but only one day instead of having to be in 3/4 days a week which would obv. cut into your business.

 

[weezie]

i think most of the hairdressers your talking about would have learned working in salons. but you could search about and see what other colleges offer where you stay, ie you could study part-time during the day but only one day instead of having to be in 3/4 days a week which would obv. cut into your business.

Thanks for the input. :hug: