The Level 3 Certificate in Principles of Aesthetics is a beauty therapy qualification aimed at 16+ year-old learners, with or without a formal background in beauty therapy training, who wish to gain access to additional study of advanced therapy treatments at Level 4 and above.

Learners will develop knowledge and skills in the areas of client consultation and care, basic health and safety in the workplace and anatomy and physiology for non-medical aesthetic treatments. They will also have the opportunity to develop practice skills required for working within the beauty therapy and non -medical aesthetics sector.

Successful completion of this qualification will allow learners to work in a variety of roles within the beauty therapy sector and to progress to further study.

The OTHM Level 3 Certificate in Principles of Aesthetics qualification can be offered to learners from age 16.

OTHM does not specify entry requirements for these qualifications, but delivery centres are required to ensure that learners admitted to the programme have sufficient capability at the right level to undertake the learning and assessment.

OTHM Centre must ensure learners are recruited with integrity onto appropriate qualifications that will:

• Meet their needs
• Enable and facilitate learning and achievement
• Enable progression

English requirements: If a learner is not from a majority English-speaking country must provide evidence of English language competency. For more information visit the English Language Expectations page.

OTHM qualifications at Level 3 represent practical knowledge, skills, capabilities and competences that are assessed in academic terms as being equivalent to GCE AS/A Levels.

The OTHM Level 3 Certificate in Principles of Aesthetics consists of 4 mandatory units, 36 credits, 360 hours Total Qualification Time (TQT) and the recommended Guided Learning Hours (GLH) for this qualification is a minimum of 180 hours.

Mandatory Units

• Consultation and Client Care (8 Credits)
• Maintain Health and Safety in the Workplace (8 Credits)
• Anatomy and Physiology (8 Credits)
• Skin Assessment and Facial Skin Care Treatments (12 Credits)

The qualification is designed to be delivered over one academic year for full-time study, but it is also flexible in its delivery to accommodate part-time and distance learning.

The qualification is delivered face-to-face, through lectures, tutorials, seminars, distance, online by approved centres only.

All units within this qualification are assessed and internally quality assured by the centre and externally verified by OTHM. The qualifications are criterion referenced, based on the achievement of all the specified learning outcomes.

To achieve a ‘pass’ for a unit, learners must provide evidence to demonstrate that they have fulfilled all the learning outcomes and meet the standards specified by all assessment criteria. Judgement that the learners have successfully fulfilled the assessment criteria is made by the assessor.

Specific assessment guidance and relevant marking criteria for each unit are made available in the Assignment Brief document. These are made available to centres immediately after registration of one or more learners.

The assessor should provide an audit trail showing how the judgement of the learners’ overall achievement has been arrived at.

As this qualification is approved and regulated by Ofqual (Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulation), many universities acknowledge the ability of learners after studying Level 3 Diploma in Law and consider for direct entry into a range of their Bachelor’s degree programmes. For more information visit the OTHM  University Progressions  webpage.