What is the difference between licensed and accredited beauty training?

Licensed beauty trainers have been vetted by the appropriate governmental bodies. Licensed programs are monitored to ensure they provide students with quality training that meets industry standards. Licensing also ensures student rights and money are protected because they must follow a set of standards. Licensing is synonymous with accreditation in the sense that they are vetted by the appropriate governmental bodies.

On the other hand, designated beauty programs have been licensed to teach, plus more. They have been deemed eligible to participate in government student loan funding. Also, accredited beauty programs can accept international students.

Are all beauty industry programs accredited and/or licensed in Alberta, Canada?

When it comes to esthetics and other specializations that would fall under esthetics, for example, lash extensions, the sad truth is most are not. Esthetics is not regulated in Alberta, Canada. As a result, many estheticians or other beauty experts unknowingly share their knowledge without having the proper license to teach.

Cosmetology is licensed however. This results in enough options of licensed and accredited training providers to choose from.

What about unlicensed beauty courses or programs?

Beauty programs and courses by unlicensed beauty trainers are not necessarily worse in quality. In fact, licensing bodies are very clear that licensing is not an endorsement of any particular trainer or program. However, it is also very clear that licensed beauty programs are vetted to an extreme by their licensing bodies.

There is a positive aspect to unlicensed trainers: They keep the costs of training down. Make sure you do the vetting if you are going to receive training from an unlicensed beauty trainer. Like we stated above, ‘unlicensed’ is not synonymous with ‘worse’.

Benefits of Licensed and Accredited Beauty Training

Licensing provides many advantages for training providers, for the students who graduate from your courses and programs, and industries themselves.

It’s pretty clear how accreditation benefits students; They attend a school that offers payment options.  As for the beauty industry, employers benefit when they hire graduates from licensed schools that they can trust. When schools produce well-trained students, the quality level in the industry overall rises.

Consumer protection

Students can take their complaints to the governing body and find a resolution. Unlike attending a course that is not licensed, the most the student can do is leave a negative review on yelp!

An added incentive for students related to consumer protection is that licensed trainers often help them find jobs as part of the licensing agreement. Last year, 79% of licensed trainers helped graduates find jobs as part of their training.

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EXECUTIVE SPA GROUP

Beauty Industry Resources

How to Pay Employees

Congratulations on being ready to employ staff! This is a big step for your company. While it can be scary to put your company’s reputation in the hands of others, knowing your responsibilities as an employer can help ease your transition.

The first step to paying employees is to register for a CRA payroll account. This account will be linked to your Business Number (BN). To open your CRA account, you will need to complete a
RC1B form.

As an employer, you will need to submit the following forms to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA):

• TD1AB
• TD1

These forms are Personal Tax Credits Return forms that you have to give all new employees to complete. These forms help you determine what deductions you need to make from their paycheque.

What if employee is being paid hourly + commission?

It is common to pay beauty industry employees by commission, unless your employee is claiming expenses, the forms above will suffice.

Additionally, Alberta Employment Standards Code requires you to keep the following records for every employee:

**NOTE: Payroll records must be kept for at least 3 years from creation date.

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PAY SCHEDULE

At the end of each pay period, you must provide each employee with a statement of earnings that includes:

• regular and overtime hours of work;
• wage rate and overtime rate;
• earnings paid that show each component separately;
• deductions from earnings and the reason for each deduction;
• time off in lieu of payment of overtime; and
• statement period.

FYI- cash shortages can only be deducted from an employee IF:
1. the employee is the ONLY ONE with sole access to the cash
2. the employee authorizes the deduction in writing with the amount and date of shortage being deducted

If you plan to reduce any employee’s wage rate, overtime rate, general holiday pay, vacation pay or termination pay, the employee must be notified before the start of the pay period in which the reduction is to take effect.
Keep in mind, these rates must always be at least the minimum required by the legislated standards.

REMITTING TO THE CRA

You must remit to the CRA all deductions you made from an employee’s paycheque (federal and provincial income tax deductions, E.I. premiums, and CPP) before the 15TH of the month AFTER the month in which you made the deductions.

All remittances must be made in bulk for all of your employees.

ISSUING T4s

You must provide a T4 form to your employees ON or BEFORE the last day of February for the previous calendar year. This T4 contains information on the total CPP, E.I. premiums, and income tax deductions you made on your employees behalf for the previous calendar year.

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‘Cultivating the Beauty Industry’

Executive Spa Group
(780) 604 2772
info@executivespagroup

Is there a difference in the terminology?

Over the years government branches, such as Alberta Education, change their names and their program names to encompass changes within their organizational missions and goals.

Student aid has been known as student finance in the past, but within this umbrella term of “student aid” falls multiple methods of financial assistance for students such as loans and grants.

Government assistance to pay for your beauty studies

In Canada, both provincial and federal governments work together to help people access post high school education. Beauty studies is one of the many fields supported by government student aid. However, relatively few training providers offer student loans. The reason for this ultimately comes down to esthetics not being a regulated industry in Alberta.

Is regulation a good thing?

This depends on who you ask. Not being regulated means that there is no governing body to guide us as a whole. It means freedom, but can there be too much freedom?

On the other hand, cosmetology is a regulated industry in Alberta. They have a governing body that oversees all hairstylists, salons, and training providers in Alberta. If you’re looking for student loans to pay for cosmetology school, you’re in luck! Because cosmetology is regulated, many training providers in Alberta will be regulated. This often means that they will be able to offer government loans to students in full time and part time programs. It also means that there won’t be too many trainers to choose from, because becoming a cosmetology trainer is a long process due to regulation.

Unlike cosmetology, esthetics training providers do not have rules to follow. As a result, it’s very easy to become an esthetics trainer and the selection becomes overwhelming. In cosmetology, a governing body determines you have met the requirements to call yourself a trainer. In esthetics, the trainer themselves determines that they have met any requirements to call themselves a trainer.

Loans, grants, and repayment

As mentioned earlier, if hairstyling is your dream career, there is definitely government student aid available to you. However, if you want to learn an esthetics skill, such as skincare or microblading, student financial aid will be hard to come by. Federal government assistance is available for full time esthetics programs only, while provincial funds are available for some part time studies. You must be at least 18 years of age to be eligible.

Loans

Loans are available for programs that will result in a certificate at participating beauty educators. Loans must be paid back after completion. If you do not finish your studies you’re still responsible for paying the loan you accepted thus far.

Grants

Grants are often given as a supplement to the loan to students that meet certain criteria, amongst them, low income students or students with disabilities. Usually grants do not have to be repaid. However, you should be advised that grants are repayable if you drop out of your program or if your eligibility changes in the middle of the training program. So don’t be a beauty school dropout!

EXECUTIVE SPA GROUP

Can hair and esthetics students access government loans?

In short, yes, hair and esthetics students can access government loans. However, not every program/course available to students offers the option.

So many courses to choose from!

If you haven’t noticed, there is a plethora of beauty industry courses to choose from. Whatever your final destination is in the beauty industry, you have multiple paths you can take to get there. For example, you can start slow and take one course at a time. Technical training usually last from one to four days. It is common for trainers to share the theory component with students one to two weeks before the technical training takes place.

Not all beauty courses offer a technical component. Covid brought a rise of online beauty courses that persist today.

Learn at your pace

While hair is a regulated industry in Alberta, esthetics is not. Therefore, short courses can kickstart a career in personal care services. After acquiring a clientele, you can take other courses to add to your service menu. Before you know it, you have become a fully licensed esthetician, and you did it at your own pace 😉

Learn on the job

Learning on the job is another option for both, hair and esthetics. Learning on the job for hair students is called an apprenticeship. Because hairstylists are regulated in Alberta, apprenticeships are monitored closely to maintain industry standards. While you still have to attend technical training at some point of your apprenticeship, it is a sliver of time and costs a fraction of attending a full time program.

Learn full/part time in school

This last option is the only option that offers the capacity for student loans. However, not every trainer that offers full and part time programs offers government student loans in Alberta. Fortunately though, people looking for full time studies have a few options for trainers in Alberta that offer government student loans.

If accessing government loans is the only option for you to pay for schooling, keep in mind that you yourself have to be eligible for student loans.

EXECUTIVE SPA GROUP

ATTN: Beauty Industry Employers

We would like to invite you to post your current/future job posting with Executive Spa Group.

Our job bank is free, fast and easy to use. You can post multiple listings for up to 30 days at a time. Candidates submit their resume and other application material directly to you, thereby affording you full control of the screening and hiring process.

By advertising in our Job Bank, you will ensure your posting is seen by thousands of beauty professional job seekers across Alberta.

No account necessary

Simply complete our template outlining the skill set you require and submit it for posting. It’s that easy. And because Executive Spa Group specializes in the beauty industry, you’ll find it easy to specify exactly what you’re looking for.

Why post with Executive Spa Group?

• Alberta Beauty Industry-focused
• Visited by Service Providers in Alberta looking for their next employment opportunity
• Attracts top industry employers and job seekers
• Contains up-to-date job listings in Alberta
• Easy-to-use
• Always free to use!

Click here to begin posting your job listings with Executive Spa Group.

Executive Spa Group
(780) 604 2772
executivespagroup.com