hello
Could anybody recommend a recognisable online distant learning qualification in Complimentary Therapy to diploma or degree level.
Iv been searching but cant find anything
Many thanks
love and light xoxo
I think that Stonebridge are pretty good. I'm doing some theory-based stuff with them. Many of their's are accredited to Diploma level (level 5 doovy whatsits). You can elect to submit all your stuff via email/online - rather than print-and-post it, as they offered 5 years ago... when I did it with them first time around. This means you can generally get your assignments graded within a day or two. And you can start on the next lesson straight away, rather than wait for them to post the next lecture to you - which was rubbish cos you'd be waiting for some wifey to come back from holidays/sickleave and it was so slow.
As far as which specific courses - well, that'll depend on what you are interested in.
There'll be people here who pooh-pooh online distance learning. But I'd ignore them. I'm currently taken a face-to-face course, and several online courses (for CPD/general knowledge, rather than to practise) - and there is no difference to sitting in front of someone as they read their powerpoints to you, and sitting at home and reading lecture notes you've downloaded and then emailing your tutor any questions you have. Except, of course, about £2000 in course fees and tens of hours of travel time ;-).
It's common sense, of course, to not take something like massage or reflexology or ear candling via online distance learning. And it's also common sense to check with the relevant insurance folk that the course you take will accredit you to a level which allows you to practise, and be insurable.
Good luck - when you find the right course you'll love it!
Ava x
hello
Could anybody recommend a recognisable online distant learning qualification in Complimentary Therapy to diploma or degree level.
Iv been searching but cant find anything
Many thanks
love and light xoxo
Thames Valley University used to do one.
thank you both very much for taking the time to read my post and reply
Ava - thank you so much i will check Stonebridge out 🙂
ChrisRams - thank you so much also i will be check that site out also
bless you both
good luck with finding a course that suits you xxx
I second the Natural Health courses. School of Natural Health Sciences. I got my Aromatherapy diploma last year. Also studying Reflexology and Colour Therapy with them, although haven't started that yet.
Highly recommended. They are very affordable at £95 self study and around £135 with tutor study. Stonebridge I found extortionate.
thank you Angelic Light and Heaven Spirit
i will look in to the website now
thank you very much for taking the time to respond and read my post
bless you
love and light
Not another outrageous thread on distant learning courses. Distant learning have there place in education, but the only proper way of studying CAM is through attending proper college courses.
Would you study to be a doctor, nurse, physio, forklift truck driver, potter, butcher or even a farmer through this route? No you would not! So why on earth would you study CAM therapies via distant learning???
Say you decided to become a farmer. So you decided to study with the British School of Agricultural Associated Colleges (made up name, don't try to google it). So you go for the Diploma in Dairy Herd Management, then the Diploma in Pig Breeding, then you wake up one morning with a bright idea and purchased the Diploma in Chicken Chasing. You really enjoyed the chicken chasing course as it burnt a few calories off, so go for the Advanced Diploma. Eventhough you paid with easy term payments it cost quite a few several £100's. To justify this expenditure you went out and brought a cow, two pigs, and a chicken for the back garden. But does this make you a farmer?
Well this is how these DL therapy courses are constructed. By themselves they are next to useless, so you do another course and another course and another. And still you haven't got the skill to be a professional practitioner. The main professional associations do not recognise these courses anymore as they are substandard and provide very little in practical training.
Of course there is nothing wrong in studying a therapy as a hobby, making a few aromatherapy creams up to give to friends and family, or to give your partner a foot rub, or meditating on a crystal. Like there is nothing wrong with having farm animals as pets in the paddock at the back of the house (as long as they have been looked after properly).
Best Wishes
A very un-apologetic Pixie 😉 lol
Say you decided to become a farmer. So you decided to study with the British School of Agricultural Associated Colleges (made up name, don't try to google it). So you go for the Diploma in Dairy Herd Management, then the Diploma in Pig Breeding, then you wake up one morning with a bright idea and purchased the Diploma in Chicken Chasing. You really enjoyed the chicken chasing course as it burnt a few calories off, so go for the Advanced Diploma. Eventhough you paid with easy term payments it cost quite a few several £100's. To justify this expenditure you went out and brought a cow, two pigs, and a chicken for the back garden. But does this make you a farmer?
I can choose to study with the British School of Agricultural Associated Colleges to get the theory, and then gain the experience by going to work on a farm. 😉 Then go into farming myself. 🙂
When it comes to CAM, therapists I know are capable of deciding that they need practical experience or supervision, and there are a lot of people out there prepared to offer it at workshops or through private tuition. A lot of us are already qualified in similar subjects and get the distance learning courses to add to our skills. And I know people who are leaving the professional associations because the PA won't recognise some courses, yet accept complete cr*p as CPD.
A very unapologetic occasional distance learning school student, 😉
Rustic :wave:
I have to agree with Reiki Pixie here. In fact, if you search through the forums pretty much every distance learning organisation recommended here has negative feedback somewhere in the forums.
The only one I've had any exposure to is SNHS and only because I came across a useless therapist in my field and after several clients told me their negative experience of him, I decided to Google him (in fact one gave me a recording of one of his sessions which I used on one of the courses I teach as a demonstration of "how not to") and that was when I first found the SNHS name. He spent a few hours and £95 becoming a "qualified therapist", after a string of other failed businesses of course. Anyway, he appears to have vanished again now, he's probably started a wheelie bin cleaning service in an area that doesn't have wheelie bins :rolleyes:
Hi Rustic
If you have read my post correctly you will notice that I said that distant learning has it's place in education. As for various CPD workshops, I could moan about them as well, but this thread is about DL learning.
I'm taking the p### out of those distant learning courses by the providers as mentioned in previous posts. As a typical example, a provider will offer a courses on Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Therapy, Clinical Nutrition, Vegetarianism, and so forth. Why is there not one complete course? Because the provider can make more MONEY!
Take another example: Basic Reflexology, Advanced Reflexology, Hand Reflexology, and an optional two day practical training course. Screwing more money out of people for a highly questionable qualification. It would work out cheaper to go to an state-finded FE college and get a proper industry recognised qualification.
And other example: Tai Chi. How the hell can you learn Tai Chi with no personal tuition! That is impossible. And as a tai chi instructor I am personally outraged. This particular BSY course is more expensive that I would charge a student for over a year of teaching.
What about counselling and psychotherapy DL courses? What an outrage! If you look at what such a practitioner has to do to work in formal healthcare, years of hardcore study. Would any of you reading this seriously go to a counsellor or psychotherapist who just read it in a book?
DL courses on sports massage & therapy, that several experienced sports therapists on Hp recently have condemed as out of date.
I didn't make up my previous post as a wind up, I mean every single word. So anyone reading this post think twice before spending your money on any course DL or not. Don't let the publicity suck you in. Don't let your ego take over from commonsense. Don't be fooled by 4 DL courses for the price of 3, write a short essay and be awarded with a Diploma in Naturopathy insulting those who worked their ar## off getting such a qualification at a legitmate college.
If I didn't have ethics, I would be jumping on the "diploma mill" bandwagon myself as I have the skills and knowledge to do so. But Pixie sleeps well at night with a clear conscience 😉 It's money for old rope and highly profitable.
Best Wishes
RP
Bannick and Reiki Pixie
I'm afraid that I have to disagree with you.
I am currently a student of a reputable face-to-face college. Their pass mark is 40% for each of their exams. I literally need not have bothered doing any study - to achieve the 40% pass. The programme is great and I will be very proud when I graduate and practise in the field. But, don't kid yourself that it's a high-end product just because we sit in a room with someone standing in front of us lecturing.
By comparison, the courses I am studying by online distance learning have a pass mark of 80%. It's hard work, and requires a lot of further reading to complete the assignments. Ironically I am taking these courses for CPD to give me a healthy general knowledge of the modalities - rather than to practise in those fields - yet they require more work than the face-to-face programme I am on.
My point is that just because it is face-to-face and costs £2000 because you have to fly the lecturer up from England for the weekend, doesn't necessarily mean it is better than something online which costs £300 and the tutor replies via email.
I work in the field of online distance learning in postgraduate Medicine (yes Reiki Pixie: doctors, nurses, research scientists, vets... but no farmers ;-)) and no-one taking our courses thinks they are getting anything other than a high quality product. I think we have to throw aside these outdated views that just because something is delivered online it is inferior to those delivered face-to-face - and that all face-to-face programmes are excellent. They aren't - which is why there are a healthy number of debates here about which are the good/rubbish face-to-face programmes.
Bannick - I suspect that your wheelie bin man would have been just as crap if he had completed a face-to-face programme. It is likely that the college (whether online, or not) he studied at is not the one at fault here, but he himself.
Ava x
My view is:
There is nothing wrong at all in studying THEORY subjects by distance learning.
Especially if you already have a job and need to study part-time, and can fit this around your other commitments.
When it comes to practical skills it is obviously much better learning face-to-face and hands-on (quite literally, in the case of massage etc).
If i was you i would stay clear of stonebridge i have had trouble with them over practical training, not what they say on the tin!!!!!
Hi Ava
As I said to Rustic distant learning has its place in education. Also if you read my words carefully I state that a student should think twice about spending money on a course whether distant learning or not.
As for face-to-face courses, of course there is unfortunately some poor ones exist and fortunately good DL courses exist as well, but the issue here is the poor standards of a particular type of DL course provider/s that exploits the aspirations of well meaning people believing that it will provide them a new career in CAM therapies.
As for the pass mark, you cannot judge a course on that. Marking criteria is a complicated process. As a very, very, very simplistic example: 40% at HE level is still higher than 60% at FE level. So as someone working in education, you should know that.
Best Wishes
RP
Reiki Pixie :wave:
You are not only taking the p*** out of distance learning courses, IMO your post of 9.51 yesterday was professionally disrespectful.
Cheaper to do a state funded FE courses - who says? You don't know what it will cost me in terms of travel, accommodation, loss of earnings, childcare etc etc. As for Tai Chi, come off it, it isn’t rocket science or brain surgery. Someone who has attended a Tai Chi class for a long time may be perfectly capable of taking a course online, and then further developing the practical skills (possibly with support from a tai chi instructor). They may not have the same expertise as you have, 🙂 but thats the same in most walks of life. If they are not at least competent at what they do, the market decides, just as it would for someone who trained in a way that you agree with. That is the commercial reality for all of us, however we have trained. And TBH it doesn’t matter how good we are if we can't market ourselves properly, or financially control our business.
As for other courses – I’ve had treatments from attendance based qualification therapists that I’ve had good service from, but also treatments from attendance based qualification therapists that I wouldn’t go near a second time. (Perhaps I should have recorded them for Bannick ;)...) I’ve also had excellent reflexologyfrom a distance learning school graduate.
For several reasons, one of which is because of what can count as CPD, I don't actually care if "the industry" recognises my qualifications or not. I would only be forced to tick the industry's boxes if I wanted to work somewhere that insisted on it, which I suggest the OP checks if intending to apply for a job either now or in the future rather than be self employed.
As I'm self employed, what I must be able to get is insurance. To the paying customer, if I am good at what I do it doesn’t matter where I qualified. If I am useless at what I do it doesn’t matter where I qualified. The “I’m better qualified than you are” or “distance learning is rubbish” mentality is what a friend of mine calls “professional posturing”. 😀
Me - I'm off to write another online course. My Oriental Toe Hair Plucking course is a sellout. 😀 Time to write the advanced. :hidesbehindsofa:
Rustic:)
Do all the distance learning courses you like. Then try and get good insurance with reasonable premiums and membership to a reputable organisation or professional association. For sports therapies and sports massage especially the moment you mention Stonebridge or BSY you will fall flat on your face.
I read the posts from people who seem dellusional about these courses. All I can say is that if you are practicing with these qualifications and someone gets hurt then I believe you will come unstuck in a big way.
Hi Rustic
As a professional teacher/practitioner I will maintain my posture, thank you 😉
I'm very aware of market realities, and how clients vote with their feet. That isn't my point. I wish to highlight that many of these BSY, Stonebridge & SNHS courses are not worth the paper they are written on. There has been many threads on Hp over the years with unhappy people complaining about them as AspireST has just said.
As for one DL reflex graduate given a decent treatment and a college-based graduate not doesn't mean that much, because 10% of DL grads be able to pull it off, and 90% of CB grads definitely can pull it off. No system of education is going to be 100%, and as I already said to you that DL has its place in education.
This isn't professional snobbery, it's highlighting the potential pitfulls of DL.
As for Tai Chi, it is a very complicated art, in fact a lifetimes endeavour. Most instructors including myself are trained through informal apprenticeships, then I did the C&G Teachers' Certificate. A more realistic way of training. In a more ideal world I think a lot of therapies would benefit from an apprentice style training, but that's not the way of the world at the moment.
But I will conceed on one thing. A couple of ITEC Reiki students of mine went and did a VTCT level 3 crystal healing course. I looked at their course folders and it wasn't that brilliant, they would of learned more from a DL course. After all crystal healing isn't rock-et science, lol 😉 Sorry had to squeeze that pun in!
Best Wishes
RP
Also if you read my words carefully I state that a student should think twice about spending money on a course whether distant learning or not.
I did read your words carefully and noticed that you conflated CAM courses with chasing chickens. So, it is difficult to take your 'serious' points seriously when your post is laced with such unnecessary cynicism. I don't know when points are being made sincerely, or sarcastically. To help the reader you need to take care that your tone is clear when you are moving from cynicism to sincerity.
but the issue here is the poor standards of a particular type of DL course provider/s that exploits the aspirations of well meaning people believing that it will provide them a new career in CAM therapies.
I credit you (no sarcasm on my part) with this concession that not ALL online distance learning courses/programmes/providers are rubbish. At least this is progress on your original standpoint.
As for the pass mark, you cannot judge a course on that. Marking criteria is a complicated process.
In my post I was commenting on the difficulty: a 40% pass mark AND the questions were so easy I need not have bothered doing any study. Compared with 80% pass mark AND the requirement for lots of additional reading to be able to answer the questions.
As a very, very, very simplistic example: 40% at HE level is still higher than 60% at FE level. So as someone working in education, you should know that.
CAM colleges are not HE ("Higher Education" - University) but FE ("Further Education" - Colleges and vocational training). Hence, using your own example: a 40% pass mark in FE is going to be even lower than a 40% pass mark in HE. But, neither of my courses are HE, so I'm not clear what the purpose of your comparison was?
I don't want to get in a protracted debate about this. It is clear that you have a poor opinion of online distance learning courses, to which you are entitled. I would politely ask you to be more careful in future to not make wantonly inflammatory and vitriolic posts out of respect to fellow readers and the OP. If you feel that you have more to say on the subject then I'll request to the moderators that you start a parallel thread on why you think online distance learning courses are crap. I don't feel that it is fair to Debo76 to have that debate here.
Ava x
Distance learning and intensive courses are a complete waste of time and money. I only wish I had read the threads warning against these types of courses before parting with ALOT of money. I kick myself for being naive enough to actually think learning in this way would secure me clients and give me the confidence I need to be able to treat clients.
I have now enrolled for a 1 year VTEC 'proper' course.
Would you get your hair cut (for example) by someone who qualified online or by attending a 3 day course?-I know I wouldn't. Trial and error has taught me that nothing beats the old school ways of learning!
I've done a large range of courses over the years, mostly face-to-face but also some distance learning - and wouldn't spend money on the latter any more, as the course materials tend to be of mediocre quality (or at most contain what you could find in a semi-decent book on the subject), and with the lack of hands-on and experiencial learning are pretty useless (I don't deny the possibility that there may be some good correspondence courses out there - but I have not come across these).
Salford University offers part-time degrees in complementary and integrative therapies - but do require face-to-face attendance.
Open University has a degree-level distance learning module "CAM: Perspectives & Practice" which is very good but is purely academic.
Masha
hello
Could anybody recommend a recognisable online distant learning qualification in Complimentary Therapy to diploma or degree level.
Iv been searching but cant find anything
Many thanks
love and light xoxo
Hi Debo
It depends what you want to do, specialise in. [url]Premier Training [/url]does online courses that have clinical practice sessions to learn the hands-on part of the course and meet other students. If you are looking at nutritional therapy, then the tutors are fully qualified and of the best! (I know two of them personally). It is half-way between attending lectures and doing it all by distance learning.
It may seem expensive but it gives you all the necessary qualifications and training at half the price of the course I did.
And yes, there are plenty fo distance learning courses that are not suitable for those wanting to start a new career in complimentary therapies. You need to check which ones are accetable to the governing bodies and insurance companies.
Distance learning, classroom/workshop study I've done them both. I did my BSc(Hons) with the Open University and worked very, very hard to get my 2.1 (all computer/maths related subjects) - distance learning at its best IMHO and when I did it it really was distance learning as it was before the online revolution!
However when it came to therapy subjects I did do BSY and SNHS courses to start with but used them as a springboard for accredited classroom/workshop courses which, for me, gave me a greater sense of achievement, satisfaction and professionalism. Basically I feel you get what you pay for.
This learning distance trend really is bad news! do not be taken in by evil money making companies.
These people in France (I am French) got sued by the regulators, maybe the same thing will happen in the Britain. Maybe? xx
Hi Ava
Thank you for the time and energy you have put in in replying to me. As you can see so far a lot of people question the value of certain DL providers. This is the problem, it isn't DL but the provider.
As for the marking thing, I made the assumption that 40% pass mark was for a HE course as that was the typical minimal pass when I was at uni. As for CAM therapies being at FE level, that isn't true as Acupuncture, Homeopathy, Herbal Medicine etc are usually at HE level. If a level 3 FE course was marked at 40% I would question its value.
If you didn't know, many therapists have done these bottom end of the DL market courses and found to their surprise that their professional body and/or insurance provider wouldn't accept these qualifications. Therefore I will carry on criticizing such courses, and will use humour if necessary to put my point across. I do like Holisticworld's comment quote: "do not be taken in by the evil money making companies". That's well funny :-))
Best Wishes
RP
just thought id let you know as a rgn with many post grad course i now do all my madatory training on line including lifting and handling !!
Collages are just not always feaible in either choice or availability. Distance learning is increasingly popular. Perhpas it would be better if we could access accredited and professional course that had to comply with aceptable standards of course work/examination and practice (where required) that way we as therapist are reassured that we are paying for a course that will equp us to practice to high standards and the public is reasurred that we are competent at what we do and they are at least safe. And yet i have seen many student nurses/doctors come and go MY point being that academia doesnt always= ability to practice,The best theapist are the ones who are able to make that connection between themselves and clients,
those client come back time after time, no matter what cerfticate you have on the wall. 🙂 BLessing Pollyp
If you didn't know, many therapists have done these bottom end of the DL market courses and found to their surprise that their professional body and/or insurance provider wouldn't accept these qualifications. Therefore I will carry on criticizing such courses, and will use humour if necessary to put my point across.
I'd tell them, tough, get over it 😉 and get separate insurance and top up training if they need it. Therapists or would be therapists take responsibility themselves for checking whether a DL course is right for them before they sign up. Just because a course is cheap doesn't mean its cr*p, (or bottom end) and just because its expensive it doesn't make it good. If I don't check in advance whether the job I am after will accept the qualification, or that my professional association's insurance will if that is important etc, that is my mistake, and its tough luck. Why should people who are perfectly capable of checking a course out and making professional/commercial decisions have their training insulted because others haven't bothered to do so? :confused:
I personally would not sign up for an online course where I had not had treatments myself in the therapy, (and believe that with training I could do it) and had not done advance reading round the subject, using up to date books. I would ask the learning provider for sample pieces from lessons. If it looks a bit dated, don't sign up, or I could ask when the course was written or last updated etc.
I would ask about practical - what's the suggestions if I'm struggling? Do they have a scheme themselves or could I make my own arrangements locally to get help? Can I get insurance? If my professional association won't accept it, am I prepared to take out separate insurance? (or even switch all my insurance over at renewal). Get the info, do the sums and then, and only then, would I sign up for a course, DL or otherwise.
Cpd certificates to prove attendance at practical sessions along with a distance learning certificate I am fine with. I don't get asked by clients, but if I was I would be perfectly happy to say I took a distance learning course for x subject, and (if practical is involved) took private tuition and practical workshops to ensure competance.
Rustic 🙂
I agree with both sides of this debate. DL has its place, but not some of these ridiculous 'practitioner level' CAM courses, which are certainly not recognised.
I will take the last poster as an example. Lifting and handling - watch, repeat, practice, watch, repeat, practice. Ive done it myself, its easy, and can be done online comfortably, not sure how easy it would be done from a textbook, but im sure its possible. Massage (mostly done via coursebooks when done DL) - read, practice, read, practice, read, practice (i think you get my point), yes im sure that anyone can do that to copy the strokes......but then what happens when you come across tight muscles, or bone, or lumps and bumps.....???? you dont know, because these ridiculously substandard courses dont cover it. What about palpation, contraindications, how to drape....I could go on.....these have all been discussed on these forums, are important to the therapy, yet these 'courses' dont cover them.
I agree with RP, why should we be kind to these courses? But then, as an employer, I wouldnt even interview someone that has done just DL courses in hands on therapies.
I read that Susan Curtis is unhappy with her training provider, Stonebridge, ive had dealings with these nasties, you dont want to get on their bad side, ie, make a complaint, as they bare their very sharp teeth!.....'Caveat emptor' 'Let the buyer beware'!
If you arent happy with your course, its been said so many times on here...go to trading standards....although SNHS are based in Spain (wonder why), so unless you go to some european court, theres no redress there....
I have spoken to a colleague about this, and the governing bodies have contacted DL providers to show them what the standards are, and offered to help with raising theirs...no response. So they (governing bodies) are willing to give evidence to trading standards, but only at the request of those complaining.
Hi fasciaman, thanks for your support.
Hi Pollypips, your reasoning is very reasonable. Nice balanced reply. You have made me think about DL, and I might write a course myself with attendance workshops and parallel it with the nearest industry standard &/or NOS. If DL is a growing market, and feel strongly about such matters, I should put my money where my mouth is and become a provider myself. Cheers 🙂
Best Wishes
RP