How to choose a right institute for your beauty and hairdressing course?

How to choose a right institute for your beauty and hairdressing course? Posted By Akshay

Many people now days who have surplus money either start with an own academy or a franchised one. Few amongst them are small salon owners who just learn somewhere and start an academy without any past teaching experience and expertise.

Reason to write this blog is to create a ripple of awareness within students who are looking forward to take up career in beauty, hair, spa, nails and make-up. No academy/ institute in the world is perfect. Still one must look for following points before taking admission.

With the wide spread awareness of looking good and feeling great, health and beauty sectors are flourishing to fullest. People are trying to enter this profession as a primary income or secondary income with other businesses or professions.

Following is the list of things one should understand, analyze, and compare before your take admission in any institute

1. It is extremely important to have a knowledgeable and experienced teacher in any B eauty institute. Not only just knowledgeable but must have a very good hand on practice on floor/ in salon. He /She should have handled enough number of clients. This definitely reflects in the teaching expertise of the person.
2. Is the institute operational and successful in training students for more than 10 – 15 years, MINIMUM?
3. Is that a very new institute with experience of less than 10 to 11 years?
4. Is there a separate place, facility, area allotted for student’s practices? If yes, then have they shown it to you when you went there for course enquiry? Is there a proper facility of water, toilets, hair wash basin, etc...
5. Most and foremost important is WHAT SYLLABUS is the institute offering? Please guys – make sure they show you entire syllabus in DETAIL.
6. What kit they are providing. What all things are included in that practice kit? [We at Impression Academy provide entire laundry to the student’s right at the basic course. It includes facial gowns, head scarfs/bands, facial napkins, napkins for manicure and pedicures, body treatments and hair treatments too. Kit also includes thread, cutting comb, cutting scissor, cape, apron, printed notes. We also provide all the cosmetics required by students for practices inside institute area.] We have got enough feedback from many students who come to us from other well-known academies that they were not told anything about the cosmetics for practices from the institute. Later once they pay complete fees they are asked to bring all things on their own! It is also seen that well known product brands in the market start institutes and train students only on their products. Which never gives students complete knowledge about other best products in the market? Neither have they had knowledge about cosmetic ingredients which is an important and inevitable part of this industry. So please check with the institutes about product knowledge, which brands, what quality of products they will give you for practices. The other side of coin is – few institutes give extremely cheap quality products to student which are beyond expiry and really bad for skin.
7. After products a very important point comes is NUMBER OF PRACTICES… How much ever you learn – Repetition or practices is the only thing which will help you succeed. We at Impression Academy give 10 to 11 guided practices of every topic in our professional courses. A trainer is always accompanying you for keeping a check on your progress. It is extremely important for any institute that they must cover soft skills, business management, inter – personal communication skills as an inevitable part of any training.
8. Certificate – “A certificate is just piece of paper without right knowledge and expertise…” any expert / or professional can vouch for it. Even if you have a world class certificate but your knowledge, expertise, practice about that course/ subject is “ZERO” or “BELOW AVERAGE” then it’s of no use for your career growth. Don’t just do courses or pursue degrees for the sake of certificates. Specially in this field lot of people go behind just known certification than acquiring proper knowledge. Though above said things are true, partially/ but just one side of coin! A certification from world class institutions carries a lot of weightage, in this industry. Certification or exams, to name a few - CIDESCO, CIBTAC/BABTAC, ITEC, City & Guilds (U.K), IHB (Shri Lanka) or any other such equivalently good exams definitely have created so many industry leaders. So be wise, choose wisely.
9. There are many government offered courses. They are conducted under corporation campus or any small salon or NGO’s. Here again, do not get deceived just by the term ‘Government course’ or ‘Government courses’. Look for all above aspects which cover quality training, lots of hands on practices, an expert faculty and most important syllabus. Why will somebody charge thousands or lack of Rupees for same course and why somebody will give you same course free or in 500 Rs.”
10. Check and compare 2 to 3 good institutes. We get phone calls every day asking,” can you tell us fees for xyz course and the duration. Guys please understand fees and duration is not the only criteria to judge a good or bad institute. Ideally one needs to go there – visit, have a look at everything on own, check previous listed factors and then decide whether that is a, “Right Institute for ‘U’”…Take out time to do this activity.
11. Don’t get deceived by Google downloaded images, showing models or foreigners doing skin or hair treatments. This is the biggest blunder in online marketing. People only believe what they see on website or online or social media advertisement of certain academies. They never go in person and check what all deliverable the academy is proposing. Check for real-time photographs of that academy.
12. Last but not the least – we as Indians always gets attracted with the word “International”. We feel if something is claimed or self pro claimed us “INTERNATIONAL”, it has to be the best. But guys, though it is named international it is in India (your city). Are the teachers who are going to train you are internationally trained or have any international exposure? Please go there once – in that institute and meet the faculty. Don’t just meet the receptionist or the course councilors. Who can be just good looking, attractive and perusing you to join a course. We have so many students complaining to us about such academies where students fall an into a trap of such things. Please always check for authenticity of such so called international or franchised places.

There are many industry leaders who themselves are great teachers and are taking immense efforts towards creating successful entrepreneurs and professionals in this field. There is a well-known saying in Zen religion, “If the student in you is ready, the right teacher appears.”