How to Become a Trainer in Hair & Beauty Industry | Blog | ELN

Want to be a Hair & beauty trainer? …. Start here!

When I was asked to write a blog post on becoming a teacher/trainer within the hair and beauty industry, I thought, ‘well, where do I begin?’ There is so much information to consider with this subject that this is going to be a series of posts! We will need to look at various aspects in relation to this, including choosing your vocation, the general teaching qualifications available and the levels of training required for each specific route.

Which route should I take if I want to become a Hair & beauty trainer?

Did you even know that this was a thing?! Did you realise that there are many avenues that you can take within training? This depends very much on what you want to achieve, what you wish to teach, what type of learners you would like and even how much money you are investing in this journey.

The teaching qualifications to become a trainer in the hair and beauty industry will differ depending on the type of training you wish to deliver. You may wish to train from your own salon; this could be just you, or it could be the beginning of an academy. You may just want to assist your trainees/apprentices by assessing them in your workplace, you may want to teach at college, or even become an external endpoint assessor….so as you can see there is a lot to consider with this journey you are embarking on!

How do I get into teaching in the Hair and Beauty industry? 

If you wish to train over 18’s, predominantly alone, within your own setup, this will be the simplest and cheapest option. You can do this by going down the accreditation route. Generally, for this, you will only need your Level 3 Award in Education & Training (AET) qualification. You can become accredited with companies such as ABT, Guild and BIBTAC, which are actually insurance companies. They will accredit you and insure you to do the training. The criteria for this training will vary from company to company and is generally ‘a bit vague’.

How to teach NVQ courses in the Hair and Beauty industry? 

Another important point to note here is that their accreditation may not be transferable, therefore anyone you teach may need to be insured through them to work! This isn’t necessarily an issue, but something worth taking note of and considering when you are researching your accreditation company. You will be required to supply your own training manuals and certificates and the qualification gained will not be OFQUAL regulated.

Should you wish to teach regulated courses such as NVQ’s with an awarding body like VTCT or City & Guilds then you will need to take your training to the next level. Regardless of whether you want to teach at a college, a training centre or within your own academy, in order to offer these qualifications you will need to obtain the full suite of teaching and assessing qualifications. This will include the Level 4 Certificate in Education & Training (CET) as a minimum, however, most colleges will require you to have the Level 5 Diploma (DET).

How do I set up my own Hair and Beauty Salon? 

Study the Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA). If you wish to set up your own academy, your awarding body will more than likely require you to have your Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) qualification too.

As you will already know, with this training there will be a strict criterion and standardisation process, and certification will be provided by the awarding body. You will also be subject to internal and external verification processes, all of which come with a hefty price tag if you are going it alone and not working for a college. However, the qualifications your students receive will be of a high level and internationally recognised.

Know your learners!

You can see from this that it is incredibly important to know who you wish to teach.

If you are planning on upskilling and CPD teaching for adult learners then your own small setup with an AET qualification is perfect. It is a quick and cheap way to get on the teaching ladder, it will give you a great introduction to teaching and it can be very flexible. Just remember the learners may not get a qualification that is well recognised so will not generally be for someone looking to embark on a new career.

If your choice is to teach learners of all ages to an NVQ standard or above, then your qualifications will need to be of a higher level and will cost more, however, funding may also be available for you through such things as a student and higher education loans. These qualifications will open up many teaching avenues and enable you to teach a wide range of students.

Thinking caps on…

In summary, it is not a case of waking up one morning and deciding that you want to become a trainer in the hair and beauty industry, you do need to have a vision in order to create the correct path. Obviously, you can fall into this line. I started out just wanting to assess my apprentices and ended up teaching at college and then in my own academy so life can evolve, but knowing the qualifications required at the start will help you to plan for a swifter and more structured route. As my learners at ELN will tell you, I am always going on about the importance of planning so think about the trainer you want to be and the level of qualification you want to provide.

Now that I have given you some food for thought, next time, we will look at the above qualifications and what is involved in each one. In the meantime, you can start paving your way to being the teacher that you WANT to be!

Cordelia Castle, Tutor, The eLearning Network.