Apprenticeships vs Traditional Massage School

[Pompal 09.]

I've heard a lot of complaints about the poor quality of education at most massage schools. And it seems that most people on this board had to educate and train themselves after school.

Did anyone here go through an apprenticeship program instead of traditional massage school?

Does anyone teach an apprenticeship program who can offer insight?

 

[mIsTy bEeBeE]

I know that there are no apprenticeship programs here in Florida as they are not recognized as a legitimate path to licensure. Decades ago it was but there was so much abuse in the system that they did away with it. Seems that a lot of spas and resorts would bring in untrained people from other countries and take advaneforum.xxxe of them under the guise of "apprenticeship."

Your basic training whether from a school or an apprenticeship is simply a starting off point. It's your foundation. Once the foundation is in place, you can go off in whichever direction you'd like. You can study and specialize in many different branches.

There's no way that a one year program (or whatever the school puts forth) can teach you all there is to know if the field of massage. It's just too vast and diverse.

Angie

 

[Pompal 09.]

Interesting observation and questions! I hope the following thoughts prove helpful to you.

I have no complaints about the massage training I received at Northwestern Health Sciences University (http://www.nwhealth.edu). It was a great experience from start to finish, and I had no particular difficulty transitioning to working at a busy massage center. However, I have also aggressively pursued continuing ed because even the best schools can only teach so much. The best MTs I have met regularly update their knowledge at seminars and never stop trying to further educate themselves.

One of the strengths of the program I attended was the number of practice sessions required to be performed outside of class. Instead of just working on each other, we learned largely by practicing on friends, family, and even strangers. The school would occasionally bring in volunteer clients that we didn't know so we could practice on unfamiliar bodies and hone intake skills. During our last few terms, we did shifts in a teaching clinic that prepared us for work in the real world, including multiple clients back-to-back, some with significant health issues.

Part of our pathology training also included doing a series of massages on a volunteer client suffering from a long-term serious health condition. This gave us a chance to experience the challenges of such work and learn how our work could provide benefit to a client with that condition. This series of sessions was in addition to those required for the rest of the curriculum.

All sessions performed outside of class had to be fully documented with client health histories, SOAP notes, etc. It wasn't easy at first, but the practice really helped me develop good intake skills and clinical reasoning. When I ran into unusual stuff during a session, I could take those questions to class for discussion with the instructors, and look for additional answers in the cadaver lab.

As a former project manager and marketing director, I was a little disappointed with the business curriculum. I would have structured it a bit differently, but overall it included many important skills and I feel it was helpful to most students. As I understand it, a number of positive changes suggested by students have been incorporated to strengthen this portion of the program.

To me, the program I graduated from had most of the strengths of an apprenticeship plus all of the strengths of a "traditional" school structure. Everything taught was presented in a manner that built progressively upon the material previously learned, and the instructors worked with us as individuals to address specific learning challenges. At the same time, we had the benefit of learning from multiple instructors, with the primary instructors all having more than 15 years of professional experience.

Now that I co-own a massage center, I am offering internship opportunities to students enrolled in local massage schools. Their time interning at our business counts towards school credit, satisfying a portion of their business-related training. It's a great opportunity for them to see how things work in the real world and interact with experienced therapists in a working environment. It falls far short of being an apprenticeship, but we have received rave reviews from the students and schools that have participated so far.

Hope that helps you realize that there are some truly excellent massage schools available. Even if you have to travel to attend one, it's probably a better choice than enrolling in the most convenient place "because it's closer/cheaper" - I have talked to many MTs that now regret making that choice.

Also, most employers want to see that an MT attended an accredited massage school. This is particularly true for new grads. I don't have time to verify the quality of an independent instructor that offers apprenticeships, and it's highly unlikely they'll be able to offer a truly well-rounded training experience. Their apprentices will most likely be limited by the instructor's weaknesses (as practitioner or as a teacher). Being skilled at massage doesn't automatically confer teaching ability.

I understand that a number of elder practitioners learned via apprenticeship and some were fortunate to have had exemplary experiences... but they are the minority, and frankly some didn't have the alternate option of having a quality accredited massage school to attend. Such schools are much easier to find now, and employers rapidly learn to assess the quality of a school's grads as they come in to apply for positions. If you are thinking of picking a school, consider asking employers in the area what school(s) they would most recommend, and why. This will tell you much about how each school is perceived, and give you some insight into how to make yourself a more attractive future applicant.

 

[yet-knish!]

Jason,
excellent advice as far as asking employers what school they like to hire from, tells you a lot.

Jason

 

[Pompal 09.]

apprenticeships are the best way to learn

Keith Grant who is a massage school teacher and leader in creating legislation for massage therapists wrote a white paper a few years ago that actually shows that apprenticeship programs are a better way to learn.

You can read it on his website

http://www.ramblemuse.com/articles/masg_governance_rev.pdf


Julie