Starting a beauty school

[weezie]

This is a bit of a strange thread in my mind as I am just putting the idea out there as it is something I would love to do but it's a massive commitment financially and time-wise- has anyone thought of opening up their own beauty school?

I know a few geeks do training and they may have thought of this too. I am interested to know if anyone has thought about starting up a school that has a nationally recognised qualification and is it important to have one? I am just thinking with regards to training those who are looking to work in a salon that want recognised qualifications e.g NVQ, VCTC, CIBTAC, CIDESCO (what are the ones I have missed from this list that are accepted?). Creative have done it with their training acadamy but they have a unique, well known and respected product behind the business.

The rules over what you need are all different, for example CIDESCO requires you have had a training school for 2 years, but what qualifications should you be giving your students until then? What is the easiest starter route? any ideas?

Are salons becoming more open to less recognised qualifications from independent training academies if the candidate has a good level of competence? (a recognised qualification as we know does not guarantee ability!!!) I would ideally like to not have to run to someone else's syllabus as some of them haven't changed for years! but would I need to to be taken seriously?

Also are there any ambitious geeks in a solid financial situation in or near London who would be interested to discuss this as a future joint venture?

Any comments welcome. :hug: Sorry for the waffle!

 

[kennedia]

You would need reasonably high level teaching qualifications and a comprehensive CV. Then you would have to apply to the relevant awarding body and go through a big pallaver of inspection visits etc. Also - it's not cheap. It is certainly possible however. hth xx

 

[weezie]

Thanks for the reply I was thinking though you would need to employ teachers so would not necessarily need the higher teaching qualifications yourself, but is it necessary to offer one of these more well known qualifications to your students? Can you be a success offering your own certification as long as it has approval from a beauty based insurance company? Also what national awarding body puts up the least barriers by offering support to new schools?

 

[kennedia]

Oh right I see - sorry! Well yes you could write your own courses and get them accredited and teach those. In which case you would probably only need a very basic teaching cert i.e. 7303. It still costs to get your own ones accredited - but not nearly as much.

 

[weezie]

I have two weeks left of my 7303 but I'm just thinking of my target market for my training school, at the moment I would think it would have to be just be qualified therapists wanting to recap or add to their skills or people wanting to set up at home/mobile as they might have difficulty convincing a salon owner of their qualifications if they haven't got an NVQ for example, or would they?:hug:

 

[lenna]

i think students would be more attracted with studying ion a college with a recognised qualification, you could give itec a ring as there qualification is internationally recognised or look up their website and contact them as there very helpful with the requirements to start and register etc, there website is www.itecworld.co.uk

 

[hippy-chick]

hiya weezie,

i think you've got the right idea, target people that are already NVQ trained/been through the college route at least once, then train for add-ons.

i have my courses accredited through the Guild, once someone has passed my course they can apply to the Guild for insurance.

I prefer that my students have already been to college and passed essential A&P and health and safety etc, and then attend my courses as another string to their bow.

it can be done, and at a later date you could then look at the NVQ level route.

 

[weezie]

Thanks for the link Lena- I just looked and I would have to have some hours of teaching to be a part of ITEC

Thanks Hippy chick some good advise. i think I will go down your route of teaching. It seems like there are a lot of barriers to starting up with courses linked to a widely recognised awarding body. It seems a shame as we see so many posts about disappointment with certain mainstream schools and I was pretty dissapointed with my school which was a private and expensive CIBTAC and CIDESCO trainer. I pretty much taught myself by reading around the subjects.

 

[Elaine143a]

Have pm'd you.

 

[weezie]

Thanks Elaine :hug:

 

[The Guild]

If you need any more information about Guild accreditation, let me know and I will send you all the details.

 

[weezie]

Please, I will pm you :hug:

 

[Kim Lawless]

I think this is an excellent idea and one that you should go for.

There's nothing to stop you developing your own techniques and having your courses accredited. Then, when you interview qualified tutors, you then teach them to teach in your own way. Be different. Of course, you should work closely with the governing bodies.

I think that the time is right for change and I know by the amount of enquiries that I now get to run my courses in private colleges that it's time to move into the 21st century as far as beauty is concerned.

Good luck. xxx

 

[weezie]

Thanks for the encouragement Kim, I would love to inspire people to a new way of working that makes my training become just as recognised as any other qualification. I have been given info on starting an NVQ school up and it would be good to teach both a recognised qualification and my own in conjunction so that they could do the NVQ then stay on for the finishing school!!:hug:

 

[oksw]

Hi Weezie, hope you still active here... have you had a success starting your own beauty school ??