NVQ needed for Teaching?

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Moby

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Hi all, I am wondering if anyone could help please!

I love doing nails but may need to give it up because of circumstances at home :( I am a home based salon and was just about to revamp the whole place for Christmas but may have to give it up for good instead! :cry:

I did a beauty course a few years back (which I hated! I am nails only again now!) and was asked by tutors to do a couple of days of nail enhancements to show the others what it's like.

I was very into it and planned the whole thing properly; I even asked CND if they would send me some free samples of their mini retention packs, which they did! (Thanks again!! :)) The classes loved the whole thing and I seemed to have loved the experience too.

Since then I have always wondered about teaching nails, I am very happy with what I can do but am hoping to brush up with some CND courses too.

I am just wondering what i would need to teach nail enhancements? I have been told an NVQ level 3 but I'm sure it's not that easy! Will I need any other teaching courses first? And will I have to complete NVQ level 2? I haven't really looked into where I would be teaching tbh but will be ringing some college's to see what they would require too.

Any info and help would be great! Thanks in advance!! Moby x
 
You generally need to hold at least one professional qualification higher than you are teaching. Therefore, if you want to teach NVQ Level 2, you need to hold NVQ Level 3 and so on. If you are teaching the highest level qualification, you need to have held that qualification for some years.

You also need a significant amount of experience in the environment you are teaching, so if you want to teach a nail course, you need to have worked as a nail technician, and if you want to teach facials or waxing, you need to have worked as a therapist, in both cases for a significant period of time.

As if that wasn't enough, you then need to get teaching qualifications. In an attempt to professionalise (their word) Further Education, the government have revamped teaching qualifications, and made them time limited. What you have to achieve depends on what you teach, but you have to achieve your qualification within two years of starting teaching.

The teaching quals are:

PTTLS (pronounced PETALS) which is the very basic introduction course that everyone does

CTTLS (pronounced KETTLES) which is the course that an instructor would do, ie somebody who doesn't really prepare a lesson, but supports students

DTTLS (pronounced DETTOLS) which is the course for a fully fledged teacher. This course includes the other two and is followed by an element of professional incorporation.

On top of all that, if you are teaching an NVQ, you will eventually be required to train as an A1 assessor so that you can plan and mark your students' work, and then once you've done that you would probably be pushed towards doing your V1 qualification so that you can internally verify another assessor's work.

In all, there is about five year's worth of training there, and you have to keep up your own particular skills too, by practising your own trade and updating your own professional knowledge.

Teaching can be an incredibly rewarding job, but it can also be the absolute pits. You earn a good hourly rate, but you do many hours preparation and marking for one hour of teaching. Students who appreciate what you do will make your job worth while, but students who create problems (intentionally or otherwise) can leave you in despair. You never feel like you're doing a good enough job, and there is little thanks. There's always something else to be done. Having said all that, at the end of a course, when your students pass and are happy, it's the best feeling in the world.

To get started in teaching, particularly in Further Education, the easiest thing to do is send your CV in to the HR department of your local college. If they need someone, they'll be in touch, because teachers are thin on the ground.

The other thing you could do is contact the head of department at your local college and see if they need any help, or if you could shadow somebody and help out in a class. This would probably be unpaid, but would get your foot in the door. Once you're on site, you'll find lots more opportunities open up, and if you do your qualifications while you teach, they'll probably pay for the courses.

Good luck!
 
wow so much to it!

Thank you so much! I didn't think into great detail about what else it would involve like homework etc tbh! At least I know what to expect and can have a good think on it now and start somewhere. Thanks again! :hug:
 

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