Your Career
Since the beginning of time, people have on some level, sought to care for their appearance. It may have been primitive but none the less history is littered with stories and accounts, of the sometimes extraordinary lengths, people went to in order to seem more attractive. The 20th century saw some of the most amazing advances in the area of health & beauty and the global cosmetic market is now a multi billion euro industry.
Alongside this growth in the retail cosmetic market there has been an equally rapid growth of the Beauty Salon sector and subsequently the emergence of a global Spa Market encompassing all aspects of health & wellbeing from the luxury pampering spa to the very high tech Medi-Spas.
The advent of the internet brought another wave of information regarding all aspects of beauty. This in turn has created an even greater demand for these many new treatments and products and hence and even greater demand for professionals trained to carry out these services. Constant new developments across the entire sector means there is a continuous demand for highly trained and skilled therapists.
The road to becoming a Beauty Therapist is quite a short one. The full time CIBTAC & CIDESCO courses can be completed in a ten month period. If you choose to study part time you can complete the three modules over a two/three year period but you could begin working after completion of any one module in that area. Many part time students complete their beauty and electrolysis modules in year one and start work immediately whilst finishing out the body module in year two.
The course is a challenging one and the depth of knowledge required is vast. There is a lot of practical work involved in each aspect of the course and most students find this really enjoyable. However, to gain knowledge and confidence the student therapist has to learn in some considerable detail the anatomy and physiology of the skin, the muscular, skeletal, nervous and endocrine systems. You must learn about the various contra-indications for individual treatments and be able to master the use of electro mechanical equipment and perform your treatments with confidence, effectiveness and safety. In addition, aspects of nutrition & diet, health & fitness, hygiene & cosmetic science are included to provide a comprehensive vocational training. Salon management including scheduling, stock control, recruitment, marketing and general business issues are also covered during the course.
As a fully qualified therapist the world is your oyster. You can carry your skill with you wherever you go and the variety of career opportunities open to you are vast. There are many paths and areas within the industry that you can choose to follow and the list of career opportunities below is testament to the great options there are for graduates. You might find a particular area of the industry that appeals to you and you can go on and specialise in this. It is also a career you can put down for a number of years and take back up again, after good up-skills training, when the time is right for you.
