by Molly Kelly
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16 January 2021
Let me start by saying I am not here to slate CPD Accredited Courses - I am writing this to give understanding to the merits of CPD Courses and give an understanding of the difference between CPD Courses and Ofqual Regulated Qualifications. This is to give you what you need to make an Informed Choice. I have been Teaching for almost 2 decades and won National Awards for Training Delivery. I have delivered qualifications & Teaching Assessor Training across a number of Sectors that once were unregulated, then became regulated by a change in law prompted by things going wrong or particular incidents causing injury, loss of life or what can be described a criminal activity or negligence. I entered the world of Aesthetics around 2015/16 when I became obsessed with Body Sculpting Equipment and gradually the obsession became a study in the store behind my class room, and eventually with the help of CPD Course Certification The Store room became my First Clinic Treatment Room. Why do I say Course Certification? I turned up paid my money and got certification for Fat Freezing & Ultrasound Cavitation in just a couple of hours if that! Did I learn Anything? Well I did but it wasn't about Fat Freezing or Cavitation! So why would I pay good money for a certificate? I wanted to get Insured to Practice! In my case I had been studying the topic for a couple of years so all i needed was the piece of paper! So One of The Pro's of CPD is On Demand Self Generated Certificates by the Training Provider - which is absolutely fine if The Training Provider is one of Integrity, Knowledgeable and delivers what they have promised! And the same thing is one of the cons (Con being the operative word) On Demand Self Generated Certificates by the Training Provider! - Which is not fine when they deliver 3 hours on Botox and tell someone they a fit to practice! This was a situation I got involved with because a client who I know well, called me to ask about mixing and proportions etc which i was initially happy to refresh her memory on and then she said "I've opened my first bottle of Botox and there is nothing in it? What are these lines on the syringe?" I was like WTF! What do you mean you opened it? She explained a little more about what had gone on and I started to explain what was wrong and she went on to say she had tried to get her money back but had been fobbed off! So I dug a little deeper and found this was a nurse led academy and the training had been delivered by a prescribing nurse who turned up late with pre mixed botox. I have to say, given what goes on with Non Medic Bashing I was a little taken a back and turned into what i can only describe as a Key Board Warrior! 2 Emails and 48 hrs later the client had her money back! Happy Ending to this case but many are not so fortunate! I am not berating Medics at all here, the point is we got her the money back because they are regulated and the conduct of this individual who was having a bad day is not worthy on this occasion to wear that coveted badge. So the issue with CPD Accredited courses, especially if a student is completely new to a topic, is that there is no regulations regards indicative content of the course on any given subject area, the entry requirements are determined by the training provider, and the worst I fear is that once accreditation is paid for, and training manuals looked at by CPD Accreditation Companies, there is little or no follow up regards Internal or External Quality Assurance. Good CPD Accredited Training Providers do their own quality assurance and continually support their students, they will sufficiently assess if the student has learnt the content, observe and document that observation of practical skills, consultation skills etc and adherence to health & safety in clinical practice. If your student feels confident in what's been taught practically and has the knowledge required to carry out treatments safely in the right environment then CPD Accredited Certification is absolutely fine for the purpose of Insuring their practice. I am currently CPD Dual Training Excellence Accredited for My CPD Courses and will continue with this where its appropriate for some of the treatments we offer. B ut under no circumstances would I recommend any one to do a CPD Accredited Teaching Course! Why? Because if you ever want to offer Regulated qualifications, you will need to pay again and re-train, no matter how good you are, you will not get awarding body approval. Let me tell you about Ofqual, who they are and what they do! Ofqual - The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England. They are the regulator body that Awarding Organisations such as VTCT, TQUK, CIBTAC, Qualifi, FAA have to answer to and comply with. Ofqual was set up in April 2010 under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 and is also covered by the Education Act 2011. Ofqual are responsible also for End Point Assessment Organisations who formally assess students at the end of an apprenticeship (This can no longer be done by the college or training provider that has delivered the training and is totally unbiassed & Independent) They are a non-ministerial government department with jurisdiction in England. They are responsible for making sure that:- • regulated qualifications reliably indicate the knowledge, skills and understanding students have demonstrated • assessments and exams show what a student has achieved the required standard of the qualification. • people have confidence in the qualifications that they regulate, why? Regulated Qualifications unlike CPD Courses have Levels of competency and different sizes at each Level. An Award is usually a smaller qualification with one to three units that can be completed in a few days. A Certificate will have a few more units of learning criteria, so in Education & Training L3 Award in Education & Training can be achieved in as little as a week L3 Certificate in Assessing vocational Achievement will take longer with specific live practice requirements. (You cannot complete CAVA without having students to assess. Moving on to L4 There is a Certificate in Education & Training, a L4 Award in Knowledge of Internal Quality Assurance, L4 Certificate in Internal Quality Assurance (You can not complete without having 2 Assessors to quality Assure their assessment decisions). L4 Leading Internal Quality assurance needs a team, 2 IQA's each assessing 2 students each. So its easy to see this is where the regulation is centred. Moving on to Level 5 Diploma in Education in Training, formerly known as DTTLS is often taught & certified at University is at under graduate level, its a big qualification which includes Assessing, Internal & External Quality Assurance Units within it together with a host of other optional units. Once Complete you can apply to have QTLS after your name, with the professional society for education and training. So in short If its an award, certificate or diploma - these words indicate the size of the qualification. If its CPD then it can not say L3, L4, L5, L7 etc, because it isn't! It should say equivalent to L4 in their course information. If it is CPD Accredited L3 AET Then it is neither, It is not worth the paper it is printed on! Each unit of a qualification will have knowledge and performance criteria with in its specification, so its down to the learning provider to design their delivery and assessment content to meet the requirements of the Awarding Organisations Specification. We currently have several Aesthetic Academy Owners on L5 diploma in Education & Training right now, to future proof their business, i would say if but I actually mean when Legislation Changes. They need to upskill their knowledge and qualifications in order that they are able to deliver practical elements on The New L5 Certificate in Aesthetic Practice and L7 Certificate in Aesthetic Practice, which contrary to popular belief, these qualifications do have pre requisites but are open to anyone who can meet them. These qualifications will close the divide between medics & non medics by taking Aesthetic Practitioners to Post Grad Certificate Level giving 30 credits at L7. We hope anticipate that in the not to distant future and we intend to develop this further with a view to having additional units to make it a diploma which will make it a degree. Going back to why i say when and not if about legislation changes, there is a lot of pressure coming mostly from the medical sector for laws to change and eventually something will happen that will trigger licensing. In my vast experience in Education & training, I have seen that Once a qualifications existed for Door Supervision, Licensing rapidly followed coupled with mandatory qualifications. This was then followed for CCTV, Security Guards and those lovely Wheel Clampers. I with my team trained Around 20,000 Security Staff in around 2/3 years. Then There was Liquor Licensing which was delayed by the qualifications not existing, but when they did, the law was implemented quite quickly. Taxi Driver Licensing, now requires mandatory qualification and Pharmacy counter assistant require regulated qualification at Level 2, with Pharmacy Technicians requiring L3. I know all this because I was involved in each of these sectors at their time of licensing roll out, I took industry experts and got them qualified as Educators delivering Qualifications that are regulated and were required for licensing.