About the Nash System
How Do I Get Started?
Application Procedures
Requirements
Facility
Codes & Regulations
Insurance
Instructor/Stylist Qualifications
Administrative Component
Director of Admissions
Director of Enrollments
Director of Human Resources
Director of the School
Client Tracking Component
ON-LINE Curriculum
Curriculum for Students about the Canine
Curriculum for Students about the Equine
Curriculum for Students about the Feline
ON-SITE Practical Skills Curriculum
Curriculum for Students about the Canine
Curriculum for Students about the Equine
Curriculum for Students about the Feline
Practical Skills Instructors Curriculum
Instructors Component
Practical Skills Sites Component
Programs for Students about Dogs, Cats & Horses
Student Tracking Component
Programs Available to Schools
Manuals & Handbooks
Fees & Payments |
| Nash Announces Grooming School Package Available Utilizing the Nash System
The creation of the Nash Approved Pet Care School Package for new and existing schools, utilizing the Nash System, is an attempt to standardize education and terminology for all students aspiring to become pet care professionals, to increase professionalism in our industry, and to give all schools taking part in the Consortium a highly developed curriculum already in existence, utilizing the Nash systems and methodology, in the hope of thereby creating students with more sophisticated education, ready to go to work at the highest levels and excel in the competitive world of the salon.
The Nash Academy, established in 1979, has been teaching the art of pet grooming for thirty years. The Nash System of preparing students with theory and knowledge has proven highly successful, and has turned out many renowned groomers and stylists who have won some of the most prestigious awards offered by our industry. Vivian and John Nash, along with Tanya Nash and Joey Villani, in their never-ending desire to revolutionize the education of aspiring pet care professionals, have further developed the theory side of bathing, grooming and styling, by incorporating online education, thereby preparing students for their practical application courses. When a Nash Academy student in the " Diploma Program" begins his or her practical application course, this student already has a wealth of theoretical knowledge to apply to his or her hands-on training. Utilizing the Nash System, the student does not have to start from square one when he or she comes in to the salon to begin to learn to bathe, groom and style man's best friend.
This System has been utilized solely by the Nash Academy until now, and Nash continues to hold all rights to its educational material, copyrights and trademarks, but is now planning to offer its System to new and existing schools that seek to prepare the best bathers, groomers and stylists without having to "re-invent the wheel." When these schools contract with Nash, to utilize the Nash System, the entire System will be available, including the innovative online courses which prepare students with the above-mentioned theory and information for their hands-on training. New and existing schools in the Consortium may elect to utilize any or all portions of the Nash System, with the benefits of standardizing pet grooming education, offering cooperative advertising, and reducing costs for every school in the Consortium. Creating and offering online educational courses is an expensive endeavor, but by having multiple schools utilizing the Nash System's courses, the expense of the delivery of the online education becomes more cost effective.
The online courses have been designed to, first, offer a solid foundation to all students seeking to enter into the pet care professions, whether they aspire to bathing, grooming, styling, boarding or day-care, and then to offer more specialized avenues of education depending upon the career path the student wants to pursue. By seeking to standardize the vocabulary and/or terminology of our industry, the Nash System aims to eliminate student confusion and allow fluent communication throughout our industry in terms of trim names, the methodology of grooming, and terminology. In the past, graduates of grooming schools have had difficulty making the transition into the world of the professional salon, because of confusion over such terminology as "feathering" and "furnishings," or a "kennel trim" and a "sporting trim," for example. The Nash System will eliminate all such confusion.
Over the past 30 years, the Nash Academy has developed and refined its system of education, so that it now includes highly detailed curriculum and syllabi, all educational material, online education, practical application education, accurate and sensible grading and attendance tracking policies and all school policies. The schools participating in the Consortium can have the total package of student education at their fingertips.
1. Online Courses for Student Education
Schools will contract with Nash to utilize its highly successful online courses, which the schools will thereafter include in their own curriculum. The schools in the Consortium will enroll students themselves, in their own school, and the students will then attend the online courses conducted by Nash. The creation of an educational exchange by students from all the Consortium schools, who will be "attending" the online classes together, will enhance discussion and learning in the online courses, creating a diversity of opinion and thought previously unheard of in our industry. In this way, one Nash-trained online instructor will teach each class, eliminating the need for each school to find properly trained, knowledgeable instructors to teach the theory portion of the curriculum. The only responsibility of the various schools in the Consortium will be to have the online instructor approved by their respective state departments of education, if applicable. Students will "attend" classes by going to a designated website titled with the Nash logo, and all schools participating in the Consortium will be listed on the home page as using the Nash System. Each school will collect tuition from its students, and pay to Nash a previously agreed-upon fee per student.
The online canine curriculum itself has been carefully designed and honed to provide encyclopedic knowledge about the dog. Totaling nine courses, it is comprised of two series of training. Beginning with the foundation course for all types of pet care, the “Man’s Best Friend” series, students learn the history of the dog, canine anatomy, the variations in the breeds and the purposes of the breeds, as well as how to properly care for the dog, including the basics of canine nutrition, health and first aid, diseases and vaccinations and canine CPR. The “Man’s Best Friend” series of six online courses is followed by the “Professional Series," which is comprised of three online courses that every aspiring pet care professional will find to be an essential component in the foundation of a bathing, grooming and styling career. Students learn the essentials of safety for the pet and pet care professional, sanitation and organization in the salon and an introduction to industry products that make life in the pet-grooming salon easier and more efficient. Proper bathing, drying, brushing, carding, and handstripping techniques are put into words, as are the mechanics behind the art of clippering, thinning and scissoring. Additionally, students learn the concepts of styling, how to organize breeds into trim style categories for proper profiling and the details of balance and symmetry and fault correction.
Nash has also recently added "Understanding and Taking Care of the Cat," a single course offering similar theoretical fundamentals about feline history, care and grooming, to its online roster, as well as two equine-related courses, "Understanding the Horse" and "Taking Care of the Horse," in which horse psychology and behavior, first aid, reproduction, anatomy, grooming, safety, and equine-related professions are explored in depth. These important additions broaden the Nash online offerings, and make new professional options available to Nash students.
2. Practical Skills Onsite Curriculum
The practical skills curriculum for the diploma program for dogs is comprised of 3 courses. The order of the skills taught in each course allows for a smooth transition from the Bathing Basics Course - 80 Clock Hours, to the Grooming Basics Course comprised of 120 Clock Hours to the Styling Basics Course comprised of 160 Clock Hours. The requirements for each course are incorporated into the Student Tracking Component so there is never a question as to when a specific technical skill, salon procedure or trim style should be taught to a student. Progress reports and report cards list the order of the requirements so all instructors follow the same procedures and meet the required time frames for each student.
The majority of the onsite curriculum is learning and practicing the various technical skills and trim styles. To allow practical skills instructors to track the type of trim styles, all pets bathed, groomed and styled by the students are documented daily in the Client Tracking Component and are part of the student record. The types of trim styles and the types of breeds the student has bathed, groomed and styled are also very important information to the student because it confirms to them that they have achieved various phases and levels throughout their training.
The same information, tracking system and reporting system is also available for the diploma program for cats and horses.
Student Handbook
Students also receive a practical skills handbook to guide them through their practical skills courses. Step by step procedures and achievement objectives are listed giving students a clear direction at any given time in the course.
3. Online Courses for Employee Education
The Nash Academy has developed online courses for employee training for the various job positions and/or responsibilities required in a school operation. These online courses include:
- Director of School Operations
- Director of Human Resources
- Director of Enrollments and Enrollment Representatives
- Director of Admissions and Admissions Representatives
- Director of Practical Skills Instructors
Online Employee Discussions Forums
In addition, Nash Academy has developed online discussion forums for all administrators and instructors participating in the Nash Consortium. Each forum will be held with ongoing discussion rooms to encourage camaraderie between the schools and provide a support system to enhance confidence in the daily routines of job performance.
Manuals
The Nash Academy has also developed manuals for every aspect of the Nash System, again to eliminate confusion and create absolute clarity for all participating in its educational endeavors. These manuals are available online and in print format and include:
- Director of School Operations Manual
- Director of Human Resources Manual - Employee Handbook
- Director of Enrollments and Enrollment Representatives Manual
- Director of Admissions and Admissions Representatives Manual
- Director of Practical Skills Instructors & Intern Manual
- Practical Skills Student Guide
- Online Student Guide
4. Computer Tracking Software
The highly developed Nash System software includes Pet Client Tracking, Prospective Student Tracking, and Student Tracking, as well as the Nash Canine Reference and the Nash Groomers Reference, all integrated and utilizing the same technology and terminology, which the Nash Academy has used for its own record keeping and teaching to great success. Since its inception in 1979, the Nash Academy has developed various methods of tracking clients so that there can be no mystery as to which student worked on a specific dog, what kind of work was done, when it was done, and detailed information using Nash terminology on every dog and every trim, allowing the Nash Academy to provide excellent service to every client, which has become the Nash standard, and allowing the school to keep fastidious records on every student's work. The Nash System Client Tracking Program will be available to all schools, so this type of scrupulous, in-depth information can be kept to enhance the schools' and salons' professionalism and ability to offer the level of service that all aspire to. As well, confusion over variations in terminology will be a thing of the past, creating a unity between what is taught in the schools and offered by the salons, and creating as well a smooth transition for students moving on from schools to employment in salons which utilize the Nash system. Working in conjunction with the Client Tracking Program is the Nash Student Tracking Program, which will also be marketed to all schools utilizing the Nash System, and allows the schools to track each and every pet that each and every student grooms. This Program utilizes the same technology and the same terminology that the Client Tracking Program does, as well as that which is utilized by the Nash Groomer's Reference and Canine Reference. This allows you to know exactly what your students have learned and completed, and again creates a unity of terminology which schools and salons need for professionalism and absolutely clear communication at every level. The Nash System's Canine Reference and Groomers Reference, revolutionary databases of all breeds of dogs, all dog care issues, all dog coat types, all dog distinctive features and breed standards, and all of the trims and grooming possibilities called for by the breed standards, are also integrated with the Student Tracking System and the Client Tracking System, utilizing the same terminology, providing schools and salons with a single vocabulary and methodology designed to do away with the confusion which afflicts our industry and frequently creates unhappy groomers and unhappy clients. With schools, salons, students and groomers speaking the same language, with access to the same base of dog knowledge, the professionalism and clarity of communication in our industry will be substantially enhanced. Similarly, the ability to track prospective students allows the schools to more successfully scout and enroll students, making administration and enrollment simple and confusion in that important avenue of our industry a thing of the past.
To cement the relationship between Nash and the schools seeking to utilize the Nash System, an articulation agreement is necessary to enable course credits to be applied to each school's program, and to allow the Nash online courses to serve as a complement to each school's existing training program. Once that is completed, when students enroll in each school's grooming program, each student will then be enrolled in the Nash online courses, and will receive the theoretical foundation that will enable that student to complete the school's hands-on program, already prepared for what will be presented by the completion of either all nine online courses or some portion of the courses. With completion of each school's hands-on practical courses, the student will then receive the respective school's diploma. The graduates will be prepared, fluent in the vocabulary of our industry, knowledgeable in all aspects of dog care and history, and ready for employment as a professional groomer.
We look forward to your participation and opinions as we further develop this revolutionary concept for an International Consortium of Pet Care Schools. Our projected goal is to have the entire system available for deployment by July 1, 2009. We hope you share our enthusiasm for this exciting new way for pet care schools to standardize education and prepare students for hands-on training. As you probably know, we have put our hearts and souls into making the Nash Academy's educational offerings as professional and exciting for students as we have long found our industry to be. Our goal is to help other schools share in that endeavor, and to help all grooming and styling students to achieve the highest heights of knowledgeable expertise using the Nash System.
Partner with Nash to train the pet care professionals of tomorrow!
Vivian and John Nash
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