When searching for a training course, you will find that many schools and course descriptions talk about their accreditation. However, it is not always obvious to the student what this means for them. So, what is accreditation, and do you need a course that carries it?
Insurance
When working in the beauty industry, it is advisable to have insurance. This is something you can take out yourself if you are self-employed, or by your employer. Insurance is fairly straight forward to get, but in a lot of cases the companies offering cover will want to know what qualifications you hold. Some will require you to submit copies of your certificates when you apply, whilst others do not ask for them until you make a claim.
Simply sending a copy of a certificate from any beauty school is not always enough to prove that you are proficient in a treatment. As there is no current regulation of the beauty industry, anyone can set up a beauty training school and offer private qualifications. There is nothing to govern the content of these courses or their quality. This has meant that insurance companies in particular have set up accreditation schemes to vet the quality of the training on offer. Therefore, when they receive an application for insurance, if they can see that the qualifications you hold are accredited, they know that your training reaches a certain standard and offering you cover is low risk.
The Accreditation Process
Schools submit their courses for accreditation themselves and this can cost substantial amounts of money. Therefore, if a course is not accredited, it does not mean that it is sub-standard, it may just mean that it has not been submitted in the first place.
What Beauty Therapy Course Accreditation Means
A course can be accredited by one company or many, there are no restrictions on this. However, some insurance companies will only accept qualifications that they have accredited themselves, so keep this in mind when choosing your course. If it is not accredited by your chosen insurance company, you should contact the insurers before you book the course to see if you can still get cover for it.
There are pitfalls with accreditation that you should be aware of. There is no industry standard for accreditation, so each company has its own rules. Also, accreditation is usually done remotely by looking at course content and qualification, most companies do not visit the individual schools.
Accreditation means that your course contains thorough enough information for you to be considered low risk to perform the treatment, but it is not a gold stamp of quality. You should still make sure that you do plenty of research into each course that interests you instead of relying purely on the accreditation system.