Essential Guide to Teaching Qualifications for Beauty Educators
Teacher/trainer guide (UK)
I’ve tried to simplify a little and hopefully it helps you make the right choice for you.
Standard teaching course (sometimes advertised as AET without Ofqual link)
This can be used to guide you into education. Content and units will be dependent on provider. This is an introduction but comes with no official qualifications.
This is often used to enable you to gain accreditation with the provider.
The downside is you are often tied to that company as other providers won’t except it. This sometimes mimics the AET and you will often see it called a AET, it’s not!
Think in house training
AET - level 3 Ofqual (that’s the key thing to look for)
An introduction to teaching, this will allow you to fulfil many of the accreditation companies needs to deliver courses
This is ideal for those wanting to in house train, work with brands and deliver small classes. You must, must ensure this is an Ofqual recognised qualification.
Certificate in education- level 4
Ofqual recognised and normally attached to a uni.
You will need a level 3 Ofqual qualification to gain entry. That’s one of the reasons it’s important to gain some official qualifications along your career, I’ve seen many people having to retrain when they decide to teach so they have entry requirements.
This is needed to work in further education (or working towards it)
Diploma in teaching - level 5
Ofqual recognised qualification
This is the complete teaching qualification. Not as relevant to teaching in the beauty industry but is helpful towards those wanting to work in higher education and higher levels of FE colleges.
PGCE-
For those already holding a degree, this is the top up and normally requires a year’s teacher training and is equivalent to the diploma in teaching
In brief - looking for a Ofqual recognised course is key, without this you are basically doing CPD and learning about teaching but has no real back up.
Be aware of teaching courses that look to easy, quick or cheap, should a teaching career be any of those things?
You want to do the most supportive, well rounded courses you can get your hands on, because trust me when you are left in front of a class you are going to need all the help you can get.
Are qualifications the only important thing?
Having the right qualifications doesn’t make you a great teacher but they do make you qualified and able to teach
Consider who’s wrote and delivering the course - do they have an education background, have they worked in various job roles so they can give a diverse perspective. Do they have experience working with occupation standards and how to ensure you have covered them in your delivery?
There is also some great courses to help those that are qualified that need extra support, or those wanting to go in to education need some extra help
This should not be easy you are going to be affecting someone’s future when you become a trainer/teacher so please do your homework and invest, like your students will be investing in you
My final note
It takes many qualities that can’t be taught, a comprehensive knowledge of your subject and a bucket load of patience. So, before you start looking at your options, look at what you plan to teach first and ask if you need to be more educated there first...
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