5 Tips to structuring courses like a pro
Kai SSG
Hey Probabes! We heard you are ready to structure your courses
Structuring your courses well is going to allow you to stand out! Below are 5 tips on how you can structure your beauty courses like a pro!
1. Know Your Content
Before you can even begin to plan your courses you must consolidate your knowledge. What will you cover in your courses? Consider the foundations such as treatment overview, anatomy and physiology, contra-actions and indicators, hygiene and safety, product knowledge, step-by-step instructions and any maintenance.
Beyond this you want your courses to stand out. Therefore, consider what other valuable knowledge you can embed such as social media, business advice, building a client base and any other additional content that may be valuable. You do not have to deliver what you are not sure of! Lean on other experts and invest in your future students. Get in touch with experts in the fields you are not as confident on and ask them to deliver a bonus module on your behalf this could be in person or a pre-recorded material you use repeatedly.
2. Establish Your Course Objectives
You need to know what you students should be able to do by the end of the course. The best way to do this is working backwards. What questions should your students be able to answer post-course? What should they be able to do and how should they do it?
We recommend going a step beyond the basics once again. You want to set your students up for ultimate success! Think about not just what they need to know in order to be good at the skill but what they need to know in order to be successful business owners.
3. Develop Your Lesson Plan
How are you going to bridge the gap between what you know and what your students should know by the end of your course? The answer is through your lesson plan. This is a WORKING document, meaning we expect you to make changes to it over time.
Using your course objectives break down how you will teach students each individual area. How much time will you spend on each area? What will the outcome of each session be and which objective are they working towards?
But lets take a step back... We told you we'd help you establish your courses like a PRO! So how can you stand out when it comes to course planning? It's simple really... don't do what everyone is doing and that is running 1-2 day short courses.
Very few educators have adopted a longer term approach to teaching short course treatments. Imagine the level of skill students could achieve on a 1-6 week course in comparison to 1-2 days. Students would be able to complete multiple model allowing them to receive detailed feedback leading to rapid progress. In turn students would be entering the industry better prepared and more confident to charge their worth.
We recommend first deciding how many days/hours your course will run for. Doing a longer term course must be meticulously planned so that students do not feel their time has been wasted or that the structure is of little value. Once you establish a time frame start to allocate the necessary time to each aspect of training ensuring that students have sufficient time to master each individual skill.
4. Create Your Course Materials
Your plan is in place! You know what you are doing and you cannot wait to see your students flourish. One way to do this is by providing more than just a training manual. Your course materials go beyond what is offered on the day of training. Whilst manuals are a great learning resource they shouldn't be the only one. On a side note course manuals must be at least 10 pages long.
So how can you utilise your course materials to meet the needs of your students? Start by building a slide deck to use on the day of training. This is even more important if delivering online courses we even suggest going a step further and providing recordings for each session. You do not want students to rely solely on manuals or become distracted by it and rush ahead. Beyond the course you want to develop additional materials that can benefit your students. We recommend creating a series of mini masterclasses/recap content that students can access this could be via instagram or youtube.
In this way your students are able to access your support for an extended period of time and do not have to wait on your responses to progress.
5. Finalise Your Assessment Plan
You must establish how you will assess students understanding of the course materials. Not everyone will pass your course first time and that is okay. As educators it is imperative that we know exactly what constitutes a pass or fail for our courses. We suggest developing a clear assessment schedule outlining each assessment whether theoretical or practical and a clear description of how to pass. In this way you will be assessing each student to the same standard establishing integrity for your academy. This document will also support you in providing constructive feedback to your students.
If you have already built your courses check your current course structure against our tips and consider where you can make improvements. It is important to be reflective as an educator and ensure that your courses are of the highest standards.
Join us back in the lounge on Monday 17th March 2025 x