Hair & Beauty Trainer Training - Tutor Talk

Yes, it's a minefield of Qualifications! 

All these letters and numbers, what do they mean? AET, CET, DET, CAVA, AOC…

We have dedicated a post specifically related to each qualification with a more in-depth look at the requirements therein. Check out IQA, EQA, EPA, teacher training courses, DCM, and ASWS; learn about the details of the courses we offer.

But for now, I will try to shed some light on the qualifications, the level they qualify at and also a brief overview of the content.  

So let's begin….

AET - Level 3 Award in Education and Training (PTLLS) in Hair & Beauty Trainer Training

The Level 3 AET course is a great introductory qualification. It will enable you to understand the basic principles behind teaching and help to build up your knowledge and confidence within a teaching environment. It is a fairly quick (around 3-6 months) course and is easily achieved online or within a classroom environment. You do not have to have any teaching experience and there is no requirement to be in a teaching position as it is mostly theory-based, however, you will also be required to do an observed micro-teach as well in order for you to demonstrate what you have learned.

The Level 3 AET course will enable you to teach in your specialist area up to level 3 and is ideal if you wish to teach alone rather than in a college environment, or if you wish to ‘dip a toe in the water’ and see if teaching is for you. 

Level 3 Assessors qualifications in Hair & Beauty Trainer Training

The Assessor qualifications can be broken down into a number of separate awards depending on the type of assessing you do, in brief, these are Award in Understanding the Principles and Practices of Assessment (UPPA) or the NVQ assessor course which is the theory element to assessment, Award in Assessing Competence in the Workplace (AOC) or the online Level 3 Competence Assessor training which as it says is assessing in the workplace, Award in Assessing Vocational Skills, Knowledge and Understanding (AVS) this is in respect to classroom-based assessment or the Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA) (Previously known as the D33/32 or A1) which is of all the above within one qualification and therefore a certificate, not an award.

The UPPA unit is to be taken in all of these qualifications as this is the theory in assessing and the foundation for all assessment knowledge.  The other units within the NVQ assessor qualifications are practical units and therefore require you to be in an assessing environment; this could be within the workplace, i.e. assessing apprentices, it could be in a teaching position in a college or private training institution, or voluntarily shadowing in any of these places. 

The CAVA qualification is a requirement by most awarding bodies such as City & Guilds or VTCT as this will enable you to assess both the practical side of the industry as well as the theory.  In my opinion, this Assessor CAVA is one of the most valuable and portable qualifications that you can have within the hair and beauty industry as it will enable you to assess in a workplace or in a college environment, it is generally also a requirement to have alongside the teaching and quality assuring qualifications for most teaching positions/awarding bodies.

CET - Level 4 Certificate in Education & Training (CTLLS) in Hair & Beauty Trainer Training

The level 4 CET qualification is the next level up from the level 3 AET course and is far more recognised within training institutions. It will enable you to teach in your specialist area up to level 4. As with the level 3 AET, you do not have to have any teaching experience, however, you will be required to undertake and evidence a minimum of 30 hours of teaching practice, of which 3 hours must be observed, again this does not necessarily need to be in an employed position it can be in a voluntary/shadowing role. The CET qualification consists of a number of mandatory and optional units, which we will discuss in more detail in a future post.

DET - Level 5 Diploma in Education & Training (DTLLS) in ​​Hair & Beauty Trainer Training

The level 5 DET in this group of teaching awards is equivalent to a Degree-level Qualification. This level qualification enables you to teach up to Level 5 in your specialist area as well as to become eligible to apply for QTLS status.  It will enable you to teach across a wide range of FE, HE institutions, colleges and training providers, and is again a requirement of most OFQUAL awarding bodies when teaching in this industry. Once again you do not need to have any previous teaching requirements for this qualification however you will need to be in a teaching position (preferably a 16+ teaching provider) and will be required to do a minimum of 100 hours of teaching practice, 8 hours of which must be observed.  As with the level 4 CET, it consists of a number of mandatory and optional units, which we will discuss in more detail in a future post.

Alongside these teaching qualifications also sits the suite of internally and externally quality assuring qualifications. These will enable you to internally verify the work of assessors within your workplace and run in a similar vein to the assessing qualifications in the sense that they are a number of awards that are of worth separately or more so together.

Level 3 Award in Understanding the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Process & Practice.

This is the theory element of the qualification and does not require any quality assuring of assessment practice.

Level 4 Award in The Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Process & Practice.

This NVQ Assessor Verifier course is the theory and practical element and will require you to quality assure assessment practice within the workplace through sample planning, monitoring and advising on the practice of assessors.

Level 3 Certificate in Leading Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Process & Practice.

This L4 NVQ TAQA qualification is the full certificate which includes the theory and practical units above as well as developing systems and leads on visits from outside agencies such as awarding organisations.

Again we will cover these in more detail in a later post.

So now, you should have decided on your learners, the route you wish to take and the qualification level that you require for this route! To help you along this journey the next few blog posts will be related specifically to each of the qualifications we have discussed, enabling you to discover the work involved in each.  We will look at credit values, mandatory units, optional units and teaching practice; this will help you to determine which qualification you would like to pursue further, depending on your level of career, ambition and commitment!

Cordelia Castle, Tutor, The eLearning Network.