The Beauty and Spa Therapy industry offers an endless number of exciting opportunities for a budding therapist and a career in beauty therapy could be your passport to success and international travel, the opportunities are endless. Once you have achieved a qualification you will need to research the market and choose the best route to help you progress and the choice may be daunting. You may have decided in advance of choosing your course what you want to do and this will help you in choosing the most appropriate course for you. More often than not most students will change their mind many times during their time at college, when they learn more about the business, through education and work experience, or circumstances may prevent them following their original plan.
There are also many mature students who are looking for a career change or returning to the industry after having children, so priorities will be different. Fortunately for mothers of school age children there are many salons or retail establishments which offer part time work that fits in with school hours and value the contribution that they make.
Some of the businesses requiring therapists now include; high street salons, urban, destination and medi – spas, specialist clinics, cruise ships, country clubs, hotels and leisure centres, to name but a few. Once you are qualified you can travel the world working in some of the most exotic locations, working with doctors and dentists or even starting your own business. This section will provide you with a view of possible careers and how to go about achieving your goals.
The latest advances in technology now also allow the therapist to work much more closely with cosmetic surgeons and dermatologists. Therapists are employed to provide advice before and after surgery and to provide skin refining treatments under medical supervision, dermabrasion, acid peels, light therapy and laser treatment are used by many doctors but often performed by beauty therapists.
The Spa industry is expanding rapidly at this moment in time, with many of the traditional spa towns capitalising on their natural curative waters and combining it with other beauty and holistic therapies such as Balinese rituals, Phytotherapy and Thallassotherapy.
The industry is also demanding that students are trained in customer care, retailing and management. They want these skills to be part of the training programmes in colleges to make the students more commercially competent and effective in selling to their clients. The employers are also looking for more practical skills. This is becoming evident with industry asking for therapists with beauty, spa and holistic qualifications rather than just one skill area.
Included in this section, are a selection of possible career choices.