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Success Rates in Massage Schools

Julie Onofrio touched on this subject in her forum about therapists getting younger. It is a hot button for me so I thought I would begin the toppic. She pointed out how drop out rates in massage schools seem to be high compared to other industries. I strongly agree with that observation.

I have always contended that the ones making money in massage are the massage schools. Massage schools are popping up everywhere for good reason, they make money. I believe the reason drop out rates are so high is massage schools have no incentive to screen applicants for suitability in our industry. On the contrary, their goal is to put as many students into a class as they possibly can.

Remembering back to my own class, we started with at least 17 students. I think 9 were left at the completion of the course. To the best of my knowledge, I was the only student who went on to become certified to practice massage therapy. 1 person out of 17 students. This dismal performance doesn't affect the school. They still receive the tuition from the students, or have the right to pursue that tuition whether the student completes certification or not. To this date, I do not believe there are any standards set, or an official organization that monitors completion rates of students that take massage therapy courses. Most accrediting organizations look at pass/failure rates. Even if a student passes the course, it does not guarantee they go on to pass the NCE that is required by many states.

I was apalled in my class when it came time to learn about feet. We lost 3 students that day, people who refused to touch feet. Don't people realize what they are getting into when they sign up to become a massage therapist? Some careful screening could have saved those students a lot of time and tuition money. Yet, the school administration is not motivated to lose potential tuition money, is it?

Has anyone else had similar experiences during their education? Does anyone have suggestions on how this situation can be improved? It causes me to consider opening up my own school and work to build the school's reputation as the school with the highest success rate and produces the better therapists. Wouldn't that make sense? Wouldn't that attract more students who are serous about learning this craft?

Ok, I'm through ranting and will step down.

Peace

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Permalink Reply by Julie Onofrio on October 2, 2009 at 6:56pm

This thread has some very interesting points! I love it! When I went to massage school back in 1987 there were a few people who were in class 'just for fun' and had no intention of becoming a massage therapist but that was when it was a 250 hour program.

I guess I don't mind people going through massage school for all of the various reasons. It is the ones who do go on to become professional massage therapists and actually practice.

I think that two phase testing is being talked about now. I used to be in the camp that you only really need 100 hours of training in massage to start doing massage but with all that I see I now think that massage should become a 4 year training program and business should be taught for all 4 years.

I think it would attract more serious massage therapists if the schools put out more highly qualified and successful massage therapists. I always wondered about that myself. If they would focus on creating successful massage therapists those therapists should be telling all of their friends and clients and the schools would be full!

Julie

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Permalink Reply by Julia Mims Edwards on October 2, 2009 at 10:19pm

Tag I will step up onto the box, I too, attended a school that seemed to accept students that were believed to not have been mentally balenced to do what it takes to massage. I know you all know that massage is not the foo foo ease that many think it is. Massage in and of itself is majorly hectic, it can be highly exhausting, it can be mentally exhausting, not to mention it can make ones breath pause waiting wanting clients to call when they don't.....Screening students for massage would mean seeing if that person is able to understand what massage really means. Also when I was in school, we had a potential student that did not seem mentally equiped, what I mean by that is that this gentleman would ask during massage and in a loud voice, "if the lube is ok?" Our program was 'doomed' to close just about 1 month before we were due to be finished. Lobbyist fought to allow us to finish because we would apparently have been put on our 'arses' There are two massage schools that only teach massage and there are 'other schools' that have programs...I work with one of the 'other schools' and what I am trying to bring to the 'proverbial table' is to give as much wisdom as I can and hopefully the students want it and want to become better. They all have a certain level of talent with massage, we all know that everything is not how well one can touch but what one know and how to touch. I agree screening and more review would make us a little more professional.

NEXT!!!