What level of qualification is needed to run own small nail tech business

[Sylviekoz]

Hi all,

I'm interested in starting my own 1 person nail business which I can operate from home, with the possibility to move into waxing at a later date. However, there seem to be so many courses out there, it's quite baffling.
One local provider is charging £2200 for a VTCT course (26 weeks) as a nail technician. I have found other local providers which are not VTCT accredited and their courses are shorter and cheaper, but I'm a bit confused what to do.

Obviously, I want to learn as much as possible so I am confident in my skills, so a longer course would be better. But I guess I'm just trying to find the medium balance between the cost of the course, what I will gain from it and what is required or needed to be a nail technician (self-employed etc).

Any thoughts or opinions that may help would be greatly appricated.

I'm based in Bedfordshire.

Thanks!

 

[AcidPerm]

If you want to focus on Nails, you could also consider doing a course with one of the main Nail training companies such as CND, Young Nails, Harmony...

My advice is don't risk wasting your money on a short course that's only accredited by an insurer. Stick to the big names as they have a good reputation for thorough training. Use the search function on here to see what fellow geeks have to say although we don't allow outright naming and shaming (for legal reasons) so read between the lines.

Word of warning! Be wary of taking 5 star online reviews at face value. There are some shady companies out there so google them thoroughly.

 

[Sylviekoz]

Thank you for the information. I'm worried that my local place is a shady company!
I have just contacted Creative Academy London to see if they have any local training centres to me.
What I'm finding confusing is all this talk of VCTC, Diplomas or NVQ's etc. I like the idea of going to a company that will training me properly and has a good rep.

 

[laurakate]

Vtct is an awarding body. Nvq is a qualification that can be awarded by vtct and other examination boards such as city and guilds.

Google for a vtct course. You'll need level 2 manicure and pedicure at minimum. For gels and or acrylics you'll need to look into other vtct courses. Milton Keynes College offers level 2 in nail technology as an evening course and this will be an excellent way to ger a business started. There aren't many privacy training providers near Luton to my knowledge so you may be best off looking at what Milton Keynes College and Central Bedfordshire College have to offer. As a beginner a college course can be an excellent choice for getting a recognised qualification and opportunities to practice on others with tutor supervision each week.

 

[Robert Giblett]

Excuse my ignorance, since I work and live in another country. But my understanding was that there was no legal requirement to be qualified to work as a NT, but that in order to obtain salon insurance from the Beauty Guild you need to have studied at an accredited school ad use accredited materials.

Why would you need level 2 manicure vtch and other gel/acrylic vtct qualifications at all?. Is this any guarantee that after qualifying this makes a confident NT with all the skills to work in a salon day 1?

i am genuinely interested because our schools in several other countries also have no national legal requirements. But a basic NT class takes 14 teacher-led days and is spread over two to three months. At the end of this they can perform several types of manicure, use tips or sculpt in 5 basic salon shapes, do corrections, understand possible reasons for problems and the solutions, know how to treat nail biters, and to qualify have an 80 question theory test and 4 hour practical test. I wonder what a VTCT class of 26 weeks will teach that is additional to this?

 

[Robert Giblett]

Do any of the NT education teach marketing, how to create a legal company, bookkeeping 101, basic tax law?

 

[laurakate]

The industry is not that well regulated here either. I recommend always doing a nationally recognised qualification where possible because they are awarded on the basis of achieving a universally set standard. This is important if you don't want to rule out the option of the widest range possible of both employed and self employed opportunities.

 

[Nailgirl9217]

From experience I wouldn't go to college to complete any acrylic/gel course as I found the quality of training on these courses pretty poor despite being a recognised qualification. It wasn't industry realistic, for example in most salons you will have 1hr 15 mins to 1hr 30 mins to complete a standard set of extensions, but college will give you up to 2hours or more. It's just not realistic. Some of the quality of nails that come out of colleges is extremely poor.

I went on to train with some bigger named companies for gel and acrylic and the difference and quality in training was second to none! Totally focused on the product etc. Class sizes are smaller so more personalised training. You want to become fairly knowledgable in one product as it will give you much more confidence when you start to speak to clients and try to promote yourself and they always give you assistance when you're having issues.

 

[blossom]

BobS I believe you are right, there is (unfortunately) no such legal requirement to hold any qualification at all

Obv it's recommended and preferred and the untrained tech would not be able to gain insurance but I'm guessing some just "wing it"

And none of the nail tech training I've done touched on tax law/book keeping although marketing was gone into. Anyone serious about their business would do their own research though I'm sure

 

[Donnadee]

Ive recently started. I found a academy near by.. i was confused at first. They do courses accredited by VTCT. But I then found I could do all them courses under an NVQ 2 for a little extra.. im paying about £1,500 if I include the kits I need. I did lots of research and people rated the academy round where I live. My manicure was a a day long course and my.artificial nails is 4 days followed by nail art too. I will be doing.a separate course for gel polish. Xx