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

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

The foot care course can take five months to complete. But you can do it as quickly or slowly as you want. That’s the advantage of distance learning.

You can take as long as you want. Unlike other organisations, we don’t set any time limits.

• You will find the course costs by
  clicking here.
• Does the cost for the course include everything I need? Or are there any extra fees?
  There are no other costs or fees.
• Can I spread the cost of the courses over a period of time?
  Yes. You can make five monthly payments. You can find the cost of paying by instalments by
  clicking here.
• Can I get my money back if I don’t like the course?
  Yes. Just return the course in good condition within 60 days of receiving it, and we’ll send you a full refund.

It’s all done from home.
You can also choose an optional Practical Day.

Yes. We have students in 28 countries. And we have two editions of the course. One is for North America and those who want to pay in US dollars. The other edition is for the UK and Europe, and people who want to pay in sterling. But we welcome payment in any currency.

There are two types of people you can contact – your tutor and a course advisor.

Your tutor marks your work, and helps you with any problems. You can email or post assignments to your tutor, whenever you want.

We don’t give out the tutor’s phone number, because a few people would spend all day talking to their tutors, who would never get any work done.

But sometimes students get stuck, or have an urgent question. If so, 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 call you back the next day. You can contact your tutor as often as you want, and about anything to do with foot care.

• Yes, the course is certified.

• Is the course endorsed?

  Yes. Our course has been endorsed under the Quality Licence Scheme.

  This means we have undergone an external quality check to ensure that our organisation and the courses we offer meet certain quality criteria.

  Endorsement involves a robust and rigorous quality audit by external inspectors to ensure quality is consistently met. A regular review of courses is carried out as part of the endorsement process.

  To this end, the learning outcomes of the course have been benchmarked at QLS Level 4 Award against level descriptors published by Ofqual, to indicate the depth of study and level of difficulty involved in successful completion by the learner.

  When you successfully complete this course you will receive a Certificate of Achievement and a Learner Unit Summary (which lists the details of all the units you have completed as part of your course).

  Read more about course accreditation here

No. But it will help you set up and run your own practice.

And we encourage all students to continue their studies after completing the course.

The course is primarily for people who want to set up their own foot health practice.

There are also openings for salaried work in foot care. You could become an assistant to a podiatrist.

Will the qualification get me a job in a hospital or school?

To get a job in a public organisation, you’ll probably need more qualifications than we can offer. Our course is designed to help you work with private clients.

The easiest way to earn a living is to work for yourself. So in the course we focus on how you can work as a foot care practitioner.

• Most countries let you set up your own practice after training with us.
• Can I practise in the USA/Canada?
  At time of writing, it is legal to practise in Canada. See https://cafcn.ca/
  The USA has more stringent regulations.Do I have to join the Alliance Register of Foot Health Practitioners in order to practise?In the UK and many other countries, there is no legal requirement for you to have completed any certain type of training, or achieve any specific level of qualification to work as a Foot Heath Care practitioner.That said it is important to do training, to ensure you have the skills to work safely with clients.Similarly, there is no requirement for you to have completed practical hours, although our learners can undertake practical training as, as it builds confidence and lets you apply your knowledge. See ‘Do you offer practical days?’, below.There is no requirement for you to join any particular organisations, or register with anyone, in order to practise.

  Organisations are great for networking and keeping up to date, but are not a requirement to practise.

Upon completing the course you can join our foot Health Care Professionals register free of charge. It could bring you valuable clients.

Other Foot Health Care organisations are available to join, but membership will depend on if a student meets these organisation’s individual criteria and requirements.
Depending on a student’s previous skills, knowledge and qualifications, they may need to complete additional studies to join these organisations.
Other organisations that could be joined include:

– The Register for Foot Care practitioners: http://www.footreg.org/

– CAFCN, The Canadian Association of Foot Care Nurses: https://cafcn.ca/join-cafcn/

– The Foot Health Practitioner Association: http://thefhpa.co.uk/join-us/ after two years’ practice.

Unfortunately we have no control over third party organisations, whose requirements can change over time. We encourage students to research different organisations directly, to learn more about their specific entry requirements.

Yes, we provide you with the names of organisations that provide insurance to students who complete our course.

When you start comparing us with other organisations you might notice that:

• Some organisations limit the amount of time you have to complete the course.Many organisations only allow you 12 months to complete the course. And after those 12 months are up they may require you to pay a fee to continue. With our course you can take as long as you need, without paying additional fees.
• 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.

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 leading national awarding organisation. (You can phone them to Verify that).
• You can read the Reviews of our students on the web site.
  https://inst.org/ethics-popup/
• You can ask us for the contact details of former students who will talk to you about their experiences.
• We publish an Ethical statement here.
• We’re registered at Companies House: registration number 352 4886
  
• Our VAT number is 729 1528 23
• Our Licence number granted by the Office of Fair Trading under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 is 606843.
• 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.

You can see what we cover in the course by looking at our course content here:

https://www.inst.org/foot-health-practitioner/syllabus

• We provide specific advice on how to get experience. This involves using family and friends, then moving on to neighbours and colleagues, then local free clients, and finally paid work.
• The advantage of this is that you start with people who have low expectations and are grateful for your work. You begin with the simplest and safest procedures and gain confidence and experience.
• To get your final Diploma you need to provide one of the following:
  – will submit either the names and contact people of at least three clients. These can be for unpaid services, but we will take up the references.
  – Or submit evidence of relevant prior healthcare work experience.

If you have any questions, contact us here:

Contact page