FAQ's | Fresh Beauty Academy

Yes, our professional courses are all fully accredited by ABT Insurance. You will gain a certificate once you have completed the course which you can use to obtain professional insurance. Every individual insurer has different criteria for offering cover so you should check with your chosen insurance company for their requirements.

In addition to our fully accredited courses, we also offer a number of skill building workshops – some of them are suitable for beginners and some are more suited to already qualified and experienced therapists. These are clearly marked as workshops rather than accredited courses and full details will be shown on the course details page. A certificate of attendance will be awarded for these workshops.

Our training school is fully insured, and so are the educators who teach you. If an insurance claim is made against Fresh Beauty Academy then our insurers and legal team would deal with this, however if a claim is made against you personally (for example by a model that you perform a treatment on during a practical session, or a model for one of your case studies that you are carrying out in order to pass your course) then you would not be covered for this claim under our policy. For this reason we recommend taking out your own insurance policy that would cover you in this eventuality.

There are a number of insurance providers on the market so please do your own research, but we know that ABT Insurance (our insurers and accreditation partner) offer a student policy which covers basic beauty treatments for £25 per year (price correct at time of writing, 2021) and you can then upgrade this to a full policy as soon as you pass your course. Ask us for our discount code when upgrading!

If you are already working in the industry you will have an exiting insurance policy, so we recommend that you check with your insurer before signing up for any new courses, to check that they will cover the new treatments as part of your existing policy. They may also be able to cover you whilst in training, as a student, under your existing terms, but please check with them first.

Before completing your practical training and assessment session either at our academy or online via Zoom (see the options available by visiting our course pages) you will first complete an online learning session from the comfort of your own home, or wherever you can access the internet! Our detailed manuals will guide you through all the theoretical knowledge you require for carrying out the treatment.

After working through the manuals there will be some multiple choice questions to answer which accompany each module, but there are no time limits and you can have multiple attempts as long as this is done before your practical training session. By completing all of this before your time with your educator, it means there will be no exams or tests during your practical session, leaving more time for hands on learning and practice!

As soon as you book your course date you will be sent further details of how to access the online learning in our private 'Student Zone'. If you have any problems with this, our support team will be more than happy to help.

Failure to complete this work may mean your practical training and assessment session can not go ahead. No refunds will be given. If you feel that you may need more time please contact us as soon as possible for advice.

For all of our accredited courses students are required to demonstrate their practical ability. For most courses this involves working on a model. In some situations, for certain nail courses and workshops, you may be able to work on yourself. Information about the running order of practical training sessions can be found in the course information displayed during the booking process. This will cover questions such as exact timings for models to arrive, and any requirements needed. For any questions around this please do not hesitate to contact our support team who will be happy to help.

Models must be 16 yrs or older.

For nail courses, your model must have bare nails that are ready for you to carry out the treatment without having to first remove polish or other enhancements. We want you to get the maximum benefit from the time allocated with your educator and spending time first removing products holds up teaching, meaning you might not be able to complete and pass your course. Nails should be in a healthy condition (e.g. not bitten or damaged from incorrect removal of previous products) and ideally should require some cuticle work to be carried out so you can practice this with your Educator's support.

If you are attending a classroom-based course at the academy please let us know as soon as possible if you are struggling to find a suitable model and we will do our best to assist you. We may be able to source a model from our database, but please note this is not guaranteed so please ask us first and don't wait till the last minute! Models are strictly required and unfortunately if a model can not be found your training would have to be postponed/cancelled. Please see our cancellation policy in our Terms & Conditions of booking for details of this.

If you are completing your training via Zoom, unfortunately we will be unable to assist you in finding a model. It is therefore especially important that you are able to arrange this yourself. We would always recommend having a 'standby' model that you can call on if your first model is unable to attend last minute. Failure to arrange a model might mean that your training can not go ahead. Please see our cancellation policy in our Terms & Conditions of booking for details of this.

We don’t insist on traditional salon work-wear when training in our academy, but we do expect students to wear clothing which is suitable for carrying out treatments in a professional environment. Comfort is important so 'smart-casual' is fine, but whatever you choose must be clean and tidy and shouldn't pose a health & safety risk. Some students choose to wear salon tunics which is also absolutely fine, but not essential.

You will be required to wear PPE where necessary, such as gloves and aprons relevant to your course. This will be provided on the day in the academy.

Our training environment is relaxed and comfortable. Advice on what we would recommend you wear post-training in a professional customer-facing environment will be discussed in your training manuals.

You will get a 30 minute lunch break on any of our full day courses in the academy. Refreshments will be provided throughout the day, but lunch is not provided. There is a good range of food outlets in the immediate area (Asda, Sainsburys, Subway, Greggs and lots of independent cafe's / deli's.) We do require a punctual start after breaks and if you miss any of the practical session you may not qualify to receive your certificate so please observe the timings given by your educator.

There is a public car park (Salters Road) a very short walk (less than 2 mins) from our building where you can pay by phone or with cash at the machine. Max stay is 3 hours in this car park so this is fine for short / evening courses but for full day training we would recommend parking elsewhere. There is a carpark on the roof of the Gosforth Shopping Centre/Sainsburys (5 mins walk) where you pay on exit, or the Regent Centre metro interchange has a long-stay car park (10 mins walk). Alternatively, you can find local on-street parking. There are streets with free all day parking but please be aware that some have parking permit restrictions so please check before leaving your vehicle. In any case, please allow plenty of time for travel so as not to delay the start of your course.

All kit that is required to complete the practical training and assessment will either be contained in the kit you are asked to purchase, or will be provided on the day for you. Where there is an optional kit available to purchase this will be advertised separately. Specific details will be listed in course information. We work with high end professional brands to give the best possible learning experience.

We are a registered partner with a professional nail tech brand Gellifique, and our students will use those products for all gel courses during training in our academy. We use CJP products for acrylic courses. For items that we don’t hold stock we may have discount referral codes so that you can order direct with brands yourself. Details will be given during your training.

In all cases we will go through a detailed kit list as part of your training and recommend where to obtain pro products. None of our courses are brand-biased and although we may recommend certain brands during training, you will be free to use any brand that you want once you are working for yourself.

On completion of your final practical training and assessment session your educator will inform you if you have met the required standards for passing the course. Although a pass is not automatically guaranteed, we have small group sizes and offer such a high level of support during your training that the majority of our students are able to pass the course without delay and receive their final certificate on the day of training. Where additional case studies are required this is detailed in our course information.

As educators and mentors, it is our job to support and guide you, and we will do everything possible to help you achieve a pass. As long as you are safe and competent to carry out the treatment yourself unsupervised, we will allow you to successfully complete the course. We may recommend that you send us case studies for further advice and support but they won’t be mandatory to pass the course unless this is detailed in our advertised course booking information.

Of course, all trainees need to practice and we don’t expect anyone to be perfect on leaving us, but we also want to make sure that you are safe and able to work alone unsupervised. If we feel there is a risk to the public we would ask you to return to the academy, free of charge, where we can offer additional training before issuing your certificate.

There are many benefits to learning in a small group such as peer support, sharing experiences, making professional friendships and understanding you're not the only one on this journey of learning a new skill! We deliberately keep group sizes small at our academy so that our Educators can offer the best level of support to every student, but if you would prefer to work on a 121 basis at our academy then yes this can be arranged, subject to our Educators' availability. This may be at an additional charge, but contact us for more info.

We understand how difficult it can be to make plans when things may change at the last minute. We want our students to book our courses with full confidence that we will support them as best we can, and so if you find yourself in this situation please let us know as soon as you are able to. We will always work with you to try to find a solution which minimises any loss to both parties, but please note that we do have a cancellation policy in place to protect our own business so please ensure you have read and are happy with these T&Cs before booking.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Are your courses fully accredited and will I be able to gain professional insurance once I have passed my course?

Do I need my own student insurance?

Do you offer finance? Can I spread the cost?

Do I need to complete any theory work?

Will I need to provide my own model?

Who can be a model?

What if I can’t find a model?

Are Patch Tests required?

What do I need to wear on my training day?

Do we get a lunch break?

Are there any parking facilities at the Academy?

Do I need to buy any kit?

Can I purchase additional kit from you?

How old do I need to be to train with Fresh Beauty Academy?

Am I guaranteed to pass the course?

What support is there for after I qualify?

Is VAT included in your prices?

Can I attend my practical session on evenings or weekends?

Do you offer 1-2-1 training? I do not want to learn in a group

I have read your T&Cs regarding cancellations, but what about if I am poorly, test positive for covid, have problems with childcare, or have any other issues meaning I can't attend my course which are out of my control?

I have additional needs. How can you support me?

I have another question that hasn’t been covered. Can you help?