If you’ve set your heart to pursuing a career in cosmetology, you probably believe that you have two options in terms of how you can get licensed. Well, maybe you do. You could take a cosmetology apprenticeship or simply enroll in a cosmetology college. The path you choose however depends on a number of things. Here are five factors that should determine your final decision, and hopefully you will decide on a cosmetology school.
How much time do you have?
Most cosmetology schools require you to train for at least 1500 hours before you can be licensed. If you are attending the school full time, this will take you at least a year. The requirement is however usually double for the apprenticeship program. The argument here is that at school, you get to focus on learning all the time. With the apprenticeship, your progress will depend on the number of customers that come into the establishment.
Another consideration is that you will not be attending to most of the customers since not many customers are willing to be attended to by an apprentice. Most apprentices also have to spend more time running errands than actually learning. So before you make that choice, think of how much time you want to spend before you can start your career in cosmetology.
How much do you want to learn?
While at the school, there is a curriculum that will guide your instructors and get them to give you the right kind and amount of guidance that you need before you can qualify as a cosmetologist. This is actually why there is a set time that you must spend at the school before you can be licensed. The apprenticeship on the other hand is more practical and informal, where you learn whatever is available for the day in terms of the customers coming in. This means that you could complete your entire training without really learning all that you have to learn simply because there were no clients seeking that service. This will thus limit your skill sets after you obtain your license, giving you a smaller scope of expertise.
The practical training aspect
In school, you need to balance out between the theory and the practical lessons. At the apprenticeship on the other hand, you will be fully hands on. This sounds good, right? Well, it is good except that you need to be able to understand how the products you will be using actually work. This is the important theoretical aspect that sets the best cosmetologist apart. If you can explain the mechanism with which a given product works, you can use it within different contexts and still get the best results. This is not just about second guessing and hoping for the best. Accurate knowledge is what makes you the better professional in the industry.
What does the law say?
In some places, you must attend a cosmetology school in order to become a licensed cosmetologist. This means that even after attending that apprenticeship, you will be required to spend some time in a school before you can get that license.
How does it affect your job prospects?
At this point, you must have noticed that cosmetology school has an upper hand in most aspects. With the job prospects, employers also find it easier to hire someone who has received training at a school. This is because they were trained with a standard curriculum and are thus likely to know everything that needs knowing in the field. An apprenticeship may offer you a chance to get hired in the same salon but they can only hire so many of their graduates.
Before committing to one or the other, at least be sure that you are making an informed choice. You can start by looking up a reputable cosmetology school in Toronto and making some more precise inquiries about their curriculum. This should help you make the right choice in the end.