louise_h

I have been here a year now and am currently a full time mum ready to start working for myself.
My Qualifications are VTCT and I studied in the UK and are supposed to be recognized Internationally (except Australia). It's taken me years for me train as a massage therapist and I have been in touch with the Australian College of Massage who require RPL.
The evidence I have submitted is insufficient and am tearing my hair out trying to obtain what they want.
Am I wasting my time doing this? Can I work for myself as long as I have the correct insurance?

Would be grateful for any advice.

Sara Louise

scrubbedexpat020

http://www.immi.gov.au/asri/occupati...st-3494-11.htm
no legal req according to this.

I would get on to VTCT and let them know what is happening in Australia. It's in their interest to fight your corner.

My wife had problems with her old NNEB so I spoke to the CEO of CACHE and he sent over a nice letter.

Another way would be to get the Aus qual assessed by NARIC for the statement of capability. Hopefully it will say your UK qual is the equivalent. http://www.naric.org.uk/index.asp?page=22 The CEO of VCTC is a Board Member of NARIC. http://www.naric.org.uk/index.asp?page=85 If the news from NARIC is good email then email the Aus listed partner http://www.naric.org.uk/index.asp?page=3 http://www.naric.org.uk/index.asp?page=25 You can go direct to NOOSR http://www.aei.gov.au/AEI/MIP/ItemsO...Interest40.htm but I would get good info from UK first.

Good luck,
Ian

Weird Fish

There is no legal requirement at the current time, but you would definitely want to make sure you have insurance in place.

I take it that you didn't do the ITEC quals or HNC which would have added some weight. Perhaps ask for some clarification on what they actually require for your RPL. It may be that the hours of supervised learning aren't sufficient.

You could also try contacting the Australian Association of Massage Therapists www.aamt.com.au (who I believe recognise some international qualifications) or the Massage Association of Massage www.maa.org.au. This might be a better route than contacting the colleges are they are simply going to want to earn money out of you doing their courses.

Also some advice here http://www.*************/forum/news-g...king-post.html

Hope this is of some help.

louise_h

To Ian & Weird Fish

Thankyou very much for your help, both comments and links have been very useful.

I am sorting out my insurance at the moment and my flyers are almost ready to print, then I'm on my way!!

The aamt won't recognise my qualifications unless I have RPL. I had already paid for this so I may as well continue to try and get it. I have been in touch with VTCT to get an academic transcript which is also required for RPL. The Academic Board requires this along with other stuff on letterheaded paper (which seems impossible to get as all my work is in a VTCT workbook on plain paper and the college can't understand this!)

Anyway, the main thing is I can now work with Insurance and if I have any more problems getting my RPL then I will go back to VTCT or one of the links sent by yourselves.

Thanks again for all your help
Sara Louise

angiebourne81

To Louise (or anyone else that may be able to help)

I am in the same position as you and also have VTCT qualifications in holistic therapies and unable to join an association without being assessed. I have e-mailed VTCT 4 times now since Dec 2009 to ask for a transcript with no acknowledgement whatsoever and so I was just wondering how you went on with them?
I'm so frustrated that they are quite willing to take your money but then leave you high & dry when you need something from them I guess i will have to phone them and then at least they can't ignore me!
Anyway, hope you are going on OK?

Angela

steve`o

where abouts are you guys? ( we are in qld )

debra ( my wife ) has had her uk qualifications accepted well almost she was at diploma level in the uk and was issued a cert 4 here
( dont ask me who with i dont and as she`s still in bed carnt ask ) but if you want to PM me deb will let you know what she did / how much it cost if it helps at all

regards steve

louise_h

Hi Angela,

Yes, VTCT were a complete nightmare. I rang them for an Academic Transcript and they said it would take 10 days for the cheque to clear once rec'd, so I got my Dad to post cheque from UK to make it quicker.
I was communicating with the same person just to make sure the cheque had been rec'd, only to find out he had gone on holiday and noone else had bothered to open his mail whilst he was away, therefore the cheque sat on his desk for another couple of weeks or so.
Was stressful as I don't have a landline here so ringing from a mobile was costly. This bloke from VTCT was a supervisor but it was me having to chase up on a daily basis!
I think it cost about £30 in total, but I also had to ring them for postage costs. Eventually I got it emailed and the hard copy came in the post.
I immediately emailed the college with it and finally got my RPL within a week.
So my advice would be to ring VTCT and tell them no one has answered your emails, your not happy about it and you need it sorting out asap!
Sadly soon after that I tore a tendon in my thumb so still haven't started, but it's been 6 mths now and healing well, so will be getting going nxt mth.

Good luck

regards

Sara Louise

angiebourne81

Hi Steve

Have PM'd you

Thanks, Angela

angiebourne81

Hi Sara Louise

Thanks for the reply & glad to hear that you got RPL. So have you had to do anything extra in Australia like be practically assessed or anything or did they just accept your qualifications as comparable straight away?
I am going to phone VTCT this week and express my disgust at their lack of reply!
Wishing your thumb a speedy recovery

Angela

louise_h

Hi Angela

I filled in an RPL assesment form from the Australian College of Massage and had to try and match the categories up with what I had done. (This was very time consuming as their modules are completely different to the VTCT ones, you can access these on their website).
The courses I have done are Swedish massage & Aromatherapy, which I had achieved 'successful recognition' from the Examining Board, Sports massage is the same as Remedial in VTCT but that came back as 'Challenge assessment' which means I would need to do extra training which I am not prepared to do as I won't be heading in that direction, and Indian Head Massage they don't recognise anyway.
To me this is not neccesary at all but I panicked and paid $250.
As long as you can get insurance, that is all you need. It is simply a way for the college to make money out of people like us.
If you wanted to join a governing body here then they do require RPL unfortunately and that is the reason why I did it.
Our qualifications are supposed to be world class (except Australia!)
Also you will need an Academic Transcript from VTCT if you still want your RPL.
Hope this info helps
good luck

Sara

mark1963

Hi Sara,

I hope you are up and running with your business !
I have just completed the VTCT level 3 massage and will be moving to sydney in august.
Can you tell me who you got your insurance through and what did you need to show to get this ? ( if anything)
I have just requested the academic transcript from vctc, i dont understand why they cant tell us that we will need this, it would have saved a lot of time.!!
Which governing body have you joined ?? was it ACM....?

Your reply will be most appreciated !!

Regards,
Mark

mark1963

Hi Does any one else have an answer to my question !!?

Thanks,
Mark