You can start the course at any time: today, tomorrow or next month. Whenever is best for you

You can study at home, or wherever you want. The course does not involve you being in a classroom or going to a test centre

Many students complete the course in five months. But you can do it as quickly or slowly as you want. That's one advantage of distance learning.

You will have permanent access to the course. You will have a year to complete your Assignments and ICMA tests. 

You can find the cost of the course by clicking 'Fees and Registration' in the grey menu.

Yes. You can make five monthly payments. There is no extra charge. You can find the cost of paying by instalments by clicking 'Fees and Registration', and then 'Pay Monthly'.

There are no other costs or fees

Yes. Just let us know within 60 days of receiving it, and return it in good condition (if you have the printed edition), and we'll send you a full refund. 

Please note however that a refund cannot be processed if you have been signed off as complete and issued your Diploma Certificate. 

You are allocated a dedicated support advisor for your course. 

The advisor marks your first and final assignments, and helps you with any problems. 

You can phone your course advisor at the Blackford Centre at any time during work hours. If you leave a message out of work hours, we'll ring you back the next working day. You can also contact us via email on: [email protected].

No, there is no final exam. The course is based on continuous assessment, using marked assignments and Interactive Computer Marked Assessments (ICMAs).  Continuous assessment lets you check all the time that you're on course to succeed. So you should look at the assignment as an exciting challenge. No, it's true! You'll enjoy them. We promise you!

You do the work again! 80% of students complete the course without ever failing an assignment. But you might misunderstand the question, or produce an insufficiently detailed answer. If this happens, with your marked assignments your advisor will explain the problem and ask you to complete the assignment again. With the ICMA's, you can simply re--try the test when you are ready.  

We advise writing up assignments on a Word Processor, and uploading this to the portal. This is because typically it is the quickest and most direct way to get your work marked, with no additional postage cost. However, we appreciate that every student is different, and if you would prefer to handwrite your assignments, we do allow this.

We ask students to upload their assignments to our portal directly, but upon request we can accept work submitted this way. 

Yes, you can.

We advise working through the course in order, but this is not a requirement. 

So, if you want to tackle a particular topic, you can go straight to that module. This is useful if you have a job or a client that requires you to know about a particular subject. You might note that some other organisations supply only one or two modules at a time.

We send you the whole course when you enrol. This means you can study any topic you want to. You can also see what topics are coming up. Getting everything in one package makes it easier for you to get an overview of the course. As we mentioned above, some other organisations supply only one or two modules at a time.

We think this is the best course in the world. Bar none. But please examine other courses before making a decision. Consider these points:

1. Is the course comprehensive?

2. Is it interactive? That is, do the course materials regularly make you stop and think, and do exercises? Too many courses consist of page after page of boring lecture notes.

3. Does it teach you about setting up your own business? College courses are often weak on this point.

4. Can you get a refund if you don't like the course?

For our course, the answer to all these questions is 'Yes'. But check out other courses as well before enrolling. We want to you make the choice that's right for you.

Yes. We can recommend brokers or insurance companies in the UK who will give you professional liability insurance.

Yes. The course is designed specifically to help you set up and run your own practice. Some courses, even at university, seem to omit this all-important aspect. We give you enough technical knowledge to practice, and we also provide detailed guidance on marketing, operation and finance to run your own business.

To get a job in a public or private organisation, you'll need more qualifications than we can offer. Our course is designed to help you work as self employed, with your own private clients. The easiest way to earn a living is to work for yourself. It's also the most lucrative. So in the course we focus on how you can work from home.

Yes, the course includes practical guidance on finding clients for your own private practice.

The Health Professions Council (HPC) will hold a statutory register of practitioners who supply unlicensed herbal medicines to people.

This is, surprisingly, a good thing. Its aim is to enable the supply of unlicensed herbal medicines to continue (which EU legislation might restrict).

The register is designed to let herbalists continue to supply unregulated herbal remedies. It thus overcomes EU legislation, and therefore helps UK herbalists.

Note that if you provide only regulated herbal remedies (the sort sold in health food shops) you won't need to be licensed.

No.

You do not currently need a licence to practise as a Herbalist in the UK. 

France has not recognised the profession of herbalist since 1941. As a result there are only a handful of herbalists still alive! That contrasts with the fact that probably half of all French people take an active interest in herbalism. It is best to call yourself a “conseiller en phytothérapie”. That's what practitioners do.

To practice herbal medicine in Portugal you are legally required to obtain a degree level qualification in one of the 7 different disciplines of complementary medicine. This includes: homeopathy, acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, naturopathy, herbal medicine, osteopathy and chiropractics. It is our understanding that once you have a degree in one of these, you can practice the others. You will need to apply for a licence however.
http://homeopathyeurope.org/practice/homeopathy-in-europe/portugal/

There are no licencing laws governing the practice of herbalism in the USA, at the time of writing. This means anyone can practice as a herbalism. Our course provides Certification to learners who complete the course, because we can show that you have demonstrated competency in the field of herbal medicine.

https://www.americanherbalistsguild.com/legal-and-regulatory-faqs

There is no licensing system for herbalists in Australia. You can, however, get banned from practising if there is a malpractice case proven against you. It's called Negative Licensing. This is likely to apply to self-taught herbalists. It is unlikely to happen to those who have been taught at a reputable school like the Blackford Centre.

There are growing international controls on the labelling and retail sale of certain remedies, rather than the control of practitioners. If the product has been properly licensed by a third party it is safe to sell it.

To sell your own herbal products in the UK, you need to apply for a Traditional Herbal Registration for any product you want to sell. It isn't hard. You find a doctor or pharmacologist who will produce a data sheet, and then you send it to the regulator. You Blackford Centre tutor can advise you on this. 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-traditional-herbal-registration-thr

NB: This does not constitute legal advice. You should always check the status of the law with your lawyer.

Our Herbalist graduates may join the Herb Society as an Ordinary Member or Overseas Member. They can also join the National Herbalists Association of Australia as a Companion Member.

They can join as a member (in various classes) of the Canadian Herb Society.

Please note that we have not sought accreditation from these organisations - there are simply too many of them - though we may do so at some point. Our accreditation comes from QLS.

There are many other organisations around the world - too many to mention here. We're always pleased to advise potential students on whether our course would allow them membership of a specific organisation. Please note that from time to time these organisations change their criteria for membership, making it easier or more difficult to join. It is wise to check with them if membership is important to you.

Remember that you don't have to join any of these organisations to practise. But they can help you network and keep up to date.

Yes. We have students in 28 countries.

Yes. Please talk to us about how we can accommodate you. We're able to make suitable accommodations.

You don’t need any specific qualifications or experience. You just need the motivation to succeed.

• Don't worry. We understand. But this course is nothing like your memories of being stuck inside a stuffy classroom on a summer's day with an old-fashioned teacher droning on.
• For a start, this is a subject that interests you (or you wouldn't have got this far).
• And getting this deep into the website shows that you can absorb information and concentrate for long periods of time.
• Also, you'll see that we write clearly and simply. And that's how we've written the course materials. It's true that some organisations write long and boring pages that make your eyes glaze over. We promise you that our course is nothing like that. You'll find this course is informative and enjoyable. In fact, many students are almost upset at finishing the course.

When you start comparing us with other course providers you might notice that:

• Some organisations will only give you 7 days to return your course if it’s not right for you. If our course is not what you expected and you want a full refund we allow you 60 days to return it and claim your money back.
• Some organisations will charge you an administration fee to return the course. We refund all of your fees.
• Many of our courses include details on business, marketing and finance, or finding a job (as applicable). This is something other courses tend to miss out. 

Here are some answers we hope will reassure you.

We've been in operation since 1995; so we're very established.

We publish our physical address at the bottom of each page - and you are welcome to visit us.

We’re audited yearly by The Quality Licence Scheme. The Quality Licence Scheme is part of the Skills and Education Group, who are a national awarding organisation. (You can phone them to verify that).

You can read the Reviews of our students on the web site.

We publish an Ethical statement here

We're registered at Companies House: registration number 352 4886

Our VAT number is 729 1528 23

Our bank is NatWest, 7 High Street, Wells, Somerset (we have money in the bank and no loans or overdraft).

We're registered with the UK government's Register of Learning Providers (www.ukrlp.co.uk); Number 10009490.

And finally, we love what we do; and we wouldn't do anything to jeopardise it.