How long should it take to learn a new skill set: a day, a week, a month, a year? One question that always comes up when people enquire about our Train to be a Personal Stylist course is: “Can you really be a fully trained personal stylist in as little as one week?”
The answer is always: YES!
When I did my training all those years ago I was of the mindset, the more expensive and the lengthier in time, the better the training would be. I couldn’t have been more wrong! In my opinion the 2 different academies I trained with had fluffed up their training with several pointless lengthy tasks, which in hindsight I felt was just to justify their inflated pricing. I was deeply disappointed as it not only cost me a lot of money (think thousands) but a big chunk of my precious holiday allowance at work.
When we set up Style ME Training in 2012, one thing we were certain of, is we were not going to drag out our training, instead we wanted to save our delegates both time and money in potential childcare, holiday allowance and hotel bills.
Our most popular ‘Intensive Train to be a Personal Stylist Course’ is exactly a week of training but it does come with a slight warning. Yes you will be trained on everything you need to know about Personal Styling, from body shapes, to personal shopping, to colour analysis, to wardrobe styling, to womenswear to menswear to branding to business planning but actually learning the skills you are trained on will and should take longer.
Theory is one thing but practice is what gives you the learning and the know-how and confidence. Our course has been devised so that after the week of training the mentoring begins. This is where I give each of my delegates styling tasks to solidify their learning. This is optional but I feel so necessary. When I give delegates my feedback on how I would have approached the styling task is when I see the penny drop, as they’re seeing the task from an experienced stylist’s point of view, which in time builds their confidence to go do it alone.
How long does it take for them to build their confidence? I honestly believe it’s all related to how quickly they truly want to or need to succeed. The more tasks they ask for, the more practice they get and the quicker their confidence and business grows.
Nisha x