Episode Transcript
Welcome to Insync Insurance Podcast. I'm your host Dawn Cross, and today we'll be discussing about choosing the right training for you with Rhian Knowles from Sunshine Training.
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Could you introduce yourself and what your position is at the company? Hi. Yeah, everyone. So my name is Rhian Knowles. Um, I am the owner and director of Sunshine Training, um, which is part of the Sunshine Group UK.
That's brilliant. So could you tell me a bit more about your background and how Sunshine Training came to be?
Yeah, absolutely. So Sunshine Training started in 2015 with one objective, which was to help with self-regulation and improving the education. Which I'm very passionate about, training standards, how they need to be higher within the hand beauty industry.
So I'm working really hard within the industry to ensure that standards are really high. The Sunshine Group have several different companies within Branch where we deliver high training standards. So we make sure that everything is fully verified and it carries quality assurance with audit trail.
So the groups that we have within the Sunshine Great is Sunshine Training, which is our official company. We have Sunshine Academy, which is our approved training company. And then we have our Sunshine Academy startups, which obviously says in the name, where we help people set up their academies alongside, the teaching qualifications, which we offer that are very accredited and Ofqual regulated.
And then we have an online platform. Where we can help educators in the industry deliver their online courses that they, would like to deliver. That sounds brilliant. And basically, you could just go from one bit to the next. If you want to start from the bottom, you could just go, go right into the training, get it going, and then you guys can give them a hand once they're ready to start.
That's amazing. So you could essentially upskill all the way so you could come into the industry as a complete beginner with.
Then do your treatments, work with your clients, and then as soon as you kind of like the past three to five years experience, then you can come back to us if you want to become an educator, and then we can follow your steps and help progress right through to, um, yeah, be in an educator and running a Training Academy.
That's brilliant. So our next question is, why is it important to choose the right education for your career in, in the aesthetics, slash beauty industry?
Okay, so this is actually a really big subject within the industry right now. And it's something again that I am really passionate about. So it's really important for people to understand the different things to look out for when you are looking for a training provider and knowing that you are on the right path.
So we have some information on our website about this, but I'll just quickly go for any listeners. So the things that you need to be looking out for is ensuring that the company that you are looking for, so like the education provider that you're gonna be looking at is like a verified company through Google, Facebook, that sort of thing.
So they haven't just popped up. So they've got that verification that they are verified. Another one would be to ensure that they're registered on the UK RLP, which is the UK Register of Learning Providers.
So again, this is another step for learning providers to go through, to ensure that they are what they say they are. You'd also need this to go Ofqual regulated as well. So if anyone wanted to go down that route, then they would need to be registered on there. It's basically a government-run website that you can go on, search their register.
And you can see, if anyone wants to see if Sunshine training's on there, the Sunshine Group is on there. Then if you go onto our website on the front homepage, you'll see our center number straight away. It's all there for anyone that wants to see. The other thing I would say is to check that they are listed and approved by the accreditation companies that they work with. Some accreditation companies don't offer a list as in a directory search online, but they should have a center number or they should have some sort of number to verify that they're with that company.
If you're unsure, just contact the accreditation company or the insurance company that they say they work with, and they'll be able to verify that this company works with them. The other thing is to check that the educators that are teaching are fully qualified in the subjects that they are teaching.
So they're a fully qualified educator, but also in the subjects they're teaching, and they hold their insurance for the subjects they want to teach and teach in. Also to look at the educator's work, so ask for the educator's work. So when you're talking to them, ask about their work, look at their socials, see how you feel about it.
Ask what the training process is. So I see a lot of training courses out there where they say you can do 10 courses in one. Realistically, that can't be possible. Our brains physically cannot retain that much information in one day.
Definitely.
Um, even if you were to do all the theory beforehand, there's no way you can get all the practicals done to a high standard in that day to just have a think about that.
And the last thing I want to add is price. Just think about when you are thinking about adding a qualification to your belt, or if you're coming as a complete beginner, don't automatically think that the cheapest is gonna be the best. You kind of get what you pay for. But also, there are companies out there that charge a lot, but that still don't deliver the standard.
That's why you need to do your background checks. But the main thing I would say is just kind of think of the qualification as an investment in your career. Think about how much you would actually want to spend on that and then go forward. You're not gonna be able to get a lifetime career for 500 pounds.
So just think about that really. So yeah, that's kind of my take on how people should look at going forward when they're looking at training provider within the home beauty industry and the aesthetic.
No, definitely, and although it seems a little bit tedious, I guess, doing these checks, I think it's really important. Obviously the government, slowly but surely gonna bring in these regulations where every academy will have to, you know, be registered, have to have the accreditation, like everything. Tick and books, whereas at the minute it's still a bit wavy. So a lot of people and the right academies that provide really good training do all these things already or working towards getting that all completed.
Yeah. So, although it may seem tedious, it's best for your work and your own, uh, practice later on, cuz then, you know, you're less likely to have maybe complications, you know, you can't completely avoid it, but you know, you're less likely to have issues because you have the right sort of training and you feel confident at the end as well.
Yeah, absolutely. And as well, like when you come into the industry, and you see those different things, it's best to make your own judgment as well. They tend to go for recommendations. Because again, that can be quite costly to your career. Um, we do have a lot of, um, students come to us at HQ saying to us that they've done training with X, Y, Z, because they were recommended it, but actually that didn't fit their learning needs and the way they prefer to learn.
So then they've now converted over to us. So I mean, It's about doing homework. And like you say, it does sound tedious, but I have always done this since I started in 2015. Beause I believe that is the way forward to offer education. It's only that now I've come in, like I'm really within the industry now, that I realize that actually this is not a standard.
Your teaching qualifications, people are writing their own teaching qualifications and then calling them level three, so that's not how it's done. So yeah, just do your background checks and your homework to really ensure that you are, you are doing the right thing. If anyone ever has any questions or is unsure, then I'm happy for them to contact me, and I'm happy to help and guide people where they need to be guided.
That's absolutely amazing. So our next question is, what training journey slash courses does Sunshine training offer?
Okay, so Sunshine, I've kind of brushed on that already. Yeah, so Sunshine training as a company offers from complete beginner within the industry. So someone wanting to career change or someone that's left school and doesn't wanna go to college and wants to have a career in the Hair and Beauty industry and the Aesthetics industry.
So we literally will follow you through that journey right through to whether you want to upscale into different treatments or whether you then later on down the line want to be in academy. We can then follow you through that journey and then progress your training that way.
We also do a lot of upskilling. So we also do have a lot of professionals that are already qualified, advanced professionals as well, that want to come, and I suppose, want to get a Sunshine certificate to prove that they are qualified and verified within the industry. So just to quickly add within their training journey and stuff like that.
So Sunshine training and across academy as well, we offer a fully verified, report. So we offer a full verification and quality assurance as part of our USP within the industry. So whether you go on sunshine training website, or you go on Sunshine Academy website, you'll see a certificate validation button.
People can click that. And if they've taken a course at sunshine training or Academy, so one of our approved training academies, they will find a certificate number on every single certificate they're issued. They can enter that into our, um, database, and then it will tell them who belongs to that certificate.
So it'll tell you the name, and then they can physically view that certificate to prove that they offer that training. They did that training to a high standard. We've done this to help with insurance companies verifying that the students have actually done the course. We've done it for students so they can prove in the industry that they've actually done the verified course.
And we've also done it for employers. So we've kind of removed all the legwork of trying to find if that student actually did the course where it's just a simple; Type the number in, click the button, and it'll tell you who owns that certificate and that it's fully verified.
No, that's amazing. And also it just, like you said, takes the legwork out, uh, completely and especially when it comes to insurance companies like ourselves, Insync insurance. We do need to check the validity of the certificates. Like we may end up contacting your training providers just to double check. We wanna make sure at the end of the day that you are who you say you are, and you've definitely got the skills and the training company as well are happy at the fact that you graduated into the industry, so to speak.
So one point I would like to say from an insurance side of things is when you are checking out the training, you need to check to see if you can be insured after you finish the training and you're ready to start practicing. So, obviously some training companies, you know, they might say that actually they're all good and everything, but if you get to the point where you're looking for insurance and no one's gonna insure you, that's obviously a big problem.
When you wanna get out there, start earning money, building up that portfolio, so definitely check as well if you're able to get insured with whatever training course that you do for afterwards.
Yeah, so as part of the Sunshine Group, we work with multiple insurance companies as well as Insync. And we encourage our students to look at our insurance page, which is very readily available for people, because obviously we are partnered with these insurance companies, so they know that we work to a high standard.
So yeah, that is something that we are really passionate about is to ensure that our student are insured essentially. And you know, we don't guarantee that they're gonna get insurance through these companies, but we know that the standard is to the standard it should be. So it stands to the individual circumstances.
But yeah, absolutely. That is something that I'm really, again, passionate about. Ensuring that all of our students have the right information they need when they finish their course to then go on and practice as a professional within the industry.
Definitely. So, as we're nearing the end now, is there anything you'd like to add?
Um, no. I think mainly just when you are looking for training, just make sure that it ticks all those boxes I've mentioned before. And like I said, if anyone's got any questions or queries about training, whether you are an educator and you want to reach out, or you're a professional wanting to reach out, or you are a complete beginner wanting to reach out, I'm more than happy for people to reach out, and help people.
That is my main aim for Sunshine within the industry. I want to be able to help people. So yeah.
That's absolutely brilliant. Well, thanks so much for coming on today's podcast. It's been brilliant, informative. Yes, it's been good. Thank you.
