Do beauty colleges actually teach anything these days?

[becca boo]

im sorry but i do take this personal. where I live to get your full cosmetology certificate it was 2300 hours then for me to get my instructors certificate it took me another 1000.

In the school i teach the students recieve a full huge text book and a workbook to go along with it inside of that there are games to help them learn and retain the info. I go through all the theory with my students break down information so that the understand it better. Play word association games with them they can tell you by the end of class almost all of the diseases and disorders off the top of their head for nails and esthetics. We watch videos on theory and application. I teach my students how to properly structure a nail. They are not even allowed to touch a tip when doing l&p only a form. I teach 3 ways to do a gel nail and the pow. I teach them the reverse, traditonal, and how to use a cookie cutter with the reverse and traditional so theres 4 ways to do a french application. I teach them how to encase everything we've done mylar candy wrappers, glitter how to marbel l&p, color fades, 3D flowers butterflies (one of students once did a beautiful scull and cross bones and a pac man). I teach them 2 ways to backfill and glitter toes.

I go above and beyond and teach them everything I know do special classes for them teach them about different products basis so they can decide what they want to use and understand what the product is and used for not just the name on the bottle and its step 2 in the process.

Is it my fault that a students says Well i never learned that but they werent there to learn it? Is it my fault they dont try to lear what there is and slack off. I instill the importance of extended education in them. We have what is called a student day of success were salons and distrubitors come to our school and do demos and utalize networking. I brought a distrubitor to them because I feel the education and techniques are amazing my students cant wait until they offer classes were I live so that they can attend(the company is a 5 hour drive from us)

I am sorry this became so long but please dont bundle all of us there are ones out there trying to make a change I dont want my students to be were I was when i graduated.

 

[becca boo]

One of the teachers didn't even know the difference between a gel product and a l&p![/quote]

WOW thats scary and uncalled for. they should give you a discount

 

[becca boo]

I'll try to answer that honestly and hopefully with out offending. Some beauty colleges teach absolutely nothing at all. The outlines and expectations of major colleges and universities are so outdated that it is impossible to teach any thing beyond basic fundamentals. The requirements for education and the approved textbooks can be out of date also. Most of the educators are required to take continuing education classes themselves, but it can be anything that the college offers. I'm not sure why a cosmetology educator should get continuing education credits for underwater cake decorating, but they do.

The students coming in our doors are different also. The younger students seem to be more needy. They need constant encouragement and one on one instruction. They don't seem to be able to make independant decisions or try things on their own after a brief demonstration or explanation.

I've said before, I'm lucky. 1. I'm in a privately owned school, we still have to meet or exceed government regulations for education, but we have a little more control over our cirriculum. 2. Our privately owned school is my family- if I or one of the other instructors wants a change or has a concern, we can call a meeting with the parents and things are changed. 3. We have a great staff, if we've discussed changes and made a plan to implement them we don't have to worry, our staff is all on the same page; someone's always got your back.

Even though our accrediting agency requires continuing education for instructors, it isn't as specific as what our school owner requires. She brings in classes to help us with our weaker areas- if we need help on lesson preparation or cirriculum outline, those are what she brings in.

With out a good educator, no matter how good their technical skills, you won't have a good education. Unless the info can be presented in a manner that catches interest, involves 2 or more senses and can be applied or reniforced in a positive manner, learning does not take place.

Is it all the college? No, but that does play a big part. (go international- same tuition applies- I know a great school!)

sorry I just wanted to say this is so true so true

 

[weezie]

Becca Boo you sound like an excellent teacher

 

[Sassy Hassy]

One of the teachers didn't even know the difference between a gel product and a l&p!

WOW thats scary and uncalled for. they should give you a discount

The teachers should be sacked!!!! Becca Boo I wish all tutors were as dedicated as you and Jeni, if you make your classes interesting you stanf a fighting chance of motivating your students to want to learn. Sending them off with assignments that aren't even written in decent English - which happens with our system here - it not motivating, it's soul destroying!

 

[Terese]

Speaking from someone who did nvq2 last year and is doing nvq 3at the mo...the assignments can be very confusing. What I mean by that is picking up on Joes point...you have questions written out by the relevant body and given out to you to answer however, in my case I have had to query some questions as they just did not make sense! I class myself as a worldly wise, intelligent, mature individual if I dont get it how on earth is someone younger than me going to get it!

In answer to your question though Sassy
We are/were given a list of books to get. I know the libaries do stock the books the colleges need but these I guess may be on loan permenantly to students.
I think its a combination of cant be bothered to spend the time looking up the answer, teachers attitudes (in some cases), how the questions are worded and the students basic attitude.

I would personally give them the benefit of the doubt but I do think its frustrating when everyone is asking and answering the same questions

 

[Marlise]

In answer to your question though Sassy
We are/were given a list of books to get. I know the libraries do stock the books the colleges need but these I guess may be on loan permanently to students.

Something I forgot to mention in my last post. The college I studied at did have a library, but only had 3 of the suggested 5 books and only had one copy of each book !

Now we were a class of 12 part time students and then you had who knows how many full time students. Having only 3 books relevant to beauty was hardly going to be enough for 40+ students, when everybody needs it at the same time !

I bought all my own books, but then I was fortunate enough to be able to "afford" it. There were quite a few people in my class who could afford to fork out the the money for their own books.

The other thing that niggled was that the college library closed at 17:30. How does that help part-time students ?

There is a reason we are studying part-time, like erm .... we work during the day ! So it's not possible to come to the library during the day like the librarian suggested to one of the girls in my class one day :irked: :irked:


Marlise

 

[joe90]

Bob's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt /quote]

and don't forget about D**k being your best friend LOL.

Seriously though, having spent 5 hours on the net and looking at what books I have on the assignment I posted on earlier, I don't feel like I have got anywhere, so I can see why peeps get totally frustrated and ask others who have already gone through the pain to ease their way a little!

However, for me putting in all this donkey work will make my qual all the more satisfying because I HAVE done all the work!

 

[joe90]

Oh and Becca, I am coming to the states so you can be my tutor, you sound fantastic!

 

[jellytot1978]

Don't take it personally lovey - no-one is having a go at you directly! You've clarified what you sort of help you are after and that is the sort of information we are more than happy to give :hug:.

Honestly though, you wouldn't believe the number of people who join here and ask us to answer their college assignments for them - they aren't interested in doing the work, just getting the answers.......

This isn't a critism of you it's more a critism of the colleges for not making things clear.......

hth's

many thanks for saying that was getting quite worried that i had sparked off an international indecent or something, i love my work and my training and would never expect someone else to do it for me, otherwise i will never learn anything...
jellytot1978

 

[lucy_locket]

Hey sassy great thread can't believe i've missed it till now!

Well i must say the answer to your question and in my opinion

Don't these beauty tutors teach anything these days? NO

Why not just give the students a big text book, a huge list of questions and tell them to get on with it. This is what they do!

i have also asked for help on here and maybe yes i could have answered it with common knowledge but i asked it and i got answers. so call me a lazy student who doesn't want to do the hard work. (i know this isn't about who has asked for help)

Well my answer is this..... i had spent all week trying to do 2 assignments which we hadn't even gone through in class, my head was full of information that i had read but not really took in and i was just finding it bloody hard to find the right answers.
Am i lazy student ..... i'm lazy sometimes but not as a student ,i just find it hard not being Taught what i had expected. Yes i can learn from reading books but i don't think Gordan Ramsey got to where he is now by reading books as a student.

i think some of us need to remember also, not all students that are asking for help are 17! I wish i was but i'm not and on my course at college there was only two 17 year olds and the rest where all above 24. I say rest because i returned today and the class has gone from being 23 to now only 7 ! And the reason everyone has left is because of how we are being taught or what little we are being taught i should say.

Now yes i will say that some colleges are better than others and also that it might not be the college but the tutor or the student.

i think why it seems to be that younger student have trouble is also because in school they are taught about the subject in the lessons.
How would we feel if our kids came home with just a sheet of paper with questions that they had been given in class and a book list to find the info!
we would be asking what are our kids being taught in class and what are the teachers doing if the kids are doing the learning at home.

yes you need to go and look up the information and do the assignments on your own but there has to be that sitting down in class and being taught what needs to be taught and we can then build on that information when researching through our books or on the internet.

As i have said this is my opinion only and will be different from others. i do understand most points that are being wrote in this thread..

i would like to say, sassy you where right about the cosmetic makeup course mine is just the same, i would have been better buying a book.:lol:

 

[lucy_locket]

Oh and Becca, I am coming to the states so you can be my tutor, you sound fantastic!

Me too!!:green:

 

[bombini]

Im not really sure how to start this post without rambling on but is it really such a bad thing to ask a few questions on this site ?! If people are coming on here with about 20 questions then fair enough but lets face it did any of us know the answer to every single question we got asked at college ? Im amazed that people aren't able to find the answer ?! If you've got a question on the epidermis your hardly likely to look in delia smiths how to cook its obviously going to be in one of the beauty text books which imo every therapist should own !!!

I attended two colleges and all the questions we were given were as homework & the content was on topics we'd already covered in class so there really was no exscuse as if it wasn't in our notes in would be in one of our nvq text books.

College is hard work and I guess to people that haven't attended a full time college course it does seem like there are loads of questions but this is homework, one of the many benefits to college after all you can't learn it all in a day.

Also with regards to some of the lecturers not being that good well i think thats all down to a difference of opinion and the student. At college I hated one lecturer with a passion, I nearly left the course as she was a complete ***** to me yet most of the others loved her, some of us thought she was diabolical at teaching & the others thought she was best thing since sliced bread. In another instance one of the ladies in the year below me was a complete liability I wouldn't of left her alone with a tin of paint never mind a client, she failed the course but was this down to her or because the lecturer was no good ?!

 

[becca boo]

Oh and Becca, I am coming to the states so you can be my tutor, you sound fantastic!

Julie you already know i will find a place for you to lay your head. Im telling you when I move to AZ im will be in the burbs Pheonix come my way 5 hours from Vegas we can make a road trip. You have been a great help to me also.:hug::hug:

 

[becca boo]

Me too!!:green:

thanks hun

 

[pure]

I attended two colleges and all the questions we were given were as homework & the content was on topics we'd already covered in class so there really was no excuse as if it wasn't in our notes in would be in one of our nvq text books.

You were lucky then! :lol:

The way we are taught is that we are set written tasks/assignments to be completed alone at home before we are taught it in class. It's quite common for us to then return to class, tell the tutor that we couldn't find the answer to a particular question for her to tell us that was because it wasn't in our text book and she wouldn't expect us to know it!!

It's almost like reverse teaching. Instead of homework consolidating what we have been taught, we are teaching ourselves and having it confirmed or corrected by the tutors afterwards.

Now I agree with researching a particular topic before studying it but I think the way many colleges are teaching now is a little back to front. JMO.:lol:

 

[lucy_locket]

You were lucky then! :lol:

The way we are taught is that we are set written tasks/assignments to be completed alone at home before we are taught it in class. It's quite common for us to then return to class, tell the tutor that we couldn't find the answer to a particular question for her to tell us that was because it wasn't in our text book and she wouldn't expect us to know it!!

It's almost like reverse teaching. Instead of homework consolidating what we have been taught, we are teaching ourselves and having it confirmed or corrected by the tutors afterwards.

Now I agree with researching a particular topic before studying it but I think the way many colleges are teaching now is a little back to front. JMO.:lol:

just what i was trying to say but the short way ...lol:lol:

 

[Jeni Giles]

Clarifying the back to front teaching mentioned by lucy and pure-

The "learning tactic" connect to prior knowledge- the catch the student must HAVE prior knowledge...kind of hard if you weren't raised in a salon. The good thing about this unfortunate tactic, it weeds out those who aren't truly serious, but hampers or debilitates those who have the desire but not as much drive. Studious students or more mature students (not just age wise) usually put forth more effort and take away the needed information even though they don't feel good about how they got the info.

Truthfully, my opinion only, that is a lazy way to teach...gives the rest of us a bad name. We're not all like that I promise!!!

 

[pure]

Clarifying the back to front teaching mentioned by lucy and pure-

The "learning tactic" connect to prior knowledge- the catch the student must HAVE prior knowledge...kind of hard if you weren't raised in a salon. The good thing about this unfortunate tactic, it weeds out those who aren't truly serious, but hampers or debilitates those who have the desire but not as much drive. Studious students or more mature students (not just age wise) usually put forth more effort and take away the needed information even though they don't feel good about how they got the info.

Truthfully, my opinion only, that is a lazy way to teach...gives the rest of us a bad name. We're not all like that I promise!!!

Totally agree with you there Jeni.

It's amazing just how many of the younger/less motivated student drop out within the first term. In fact one of our tutors made a comment last night about how she can tell who are the committed ones and who would finish the course, quite early on.:|

 

[Jeni Giles]

It's amazing just how many of the younger/less motivated student drop out within the first term. In fact one of our tutors made a comment last night about how she can tell who are the committed ones and who would finish the course, quite early on.:|

Most instructors can tell who will finish and be successful, we have hopes and wishes (at least I do) that our graduates will be successful. I'm not going to be around forever I'll need to know that someone will have the knowledge to take my place and pass it on....maybe 10 or 15 years from now, that will be you!!:hug: