With so many qualifications available in the area of natural therapies, meditation and personal development, it is useful to know the requirements of workplace training so you can determine if a training provider is providing quality training. With any natural therapies training, it’s very important to ask your trainer if they are qualified to teach adults in the workplace.

Certificate of Completion – this type of certificate is awarded on completion of designated training without any formal assessment, but is not a qualification in its own right. You won’t be able to obtain practitioner insurance to practice with a Certificate of Completion unless you already have an existing relevant qualification. Typical kinds of training which award Certificates of Completion are: Online courses, 1-day workshops or masterclass, any workshop designed as an add-on or CPD trainings for existing teachers, therapists and mind body professionals, which provides skills to use with existing teaching or therapies.

Certified Training – this is the name given to any training where a Certificate of Completion is awarded on completion of the training. without any formal assessment. This is recognised as CPD (add-on to existing qualification) but is not a qualification in its own right. You won’t be able to obtain insurance with a Certificate of completion unless you already have an existing relevant qualification.

Certificate of Competency – awarded on completion of designated coursework plus assessment tasks. This is a qualification which will allow you to obtain insurance to practice. Typically this would be a Certifcate, Advanced Certificate, Diploma or Advanced Diploma. The best quality training will include a description of the method of assessment included on the certificate itself, for the benefit of your insurance provider.

Workplace Training

Professional workplace training will always follow a designated framework. Any certificate awarded on completion of the coursework must follow a designated framework, see below:

For example:

  • Certificate – the first level of qualification. In some countries there may be various levels awarded, each for a designated length of study time eg. Certificate I, Certificate II, Certificate III, Certificate IV.
  • Advanced Certificate – the Advanced Certificate may be awarded as further study as an add-on or upgrade to a Certificate award but only if there are no Certiiicate I, Certificate II, Certificate III or Certificate IV..
  • Diploma
  • Advanced Diploma -the Advanced Diploma is further study as an add-on or upgrade to a Diploma award.