Massage Education that Fits Your Schedule, Not Ours
Whether you have soccer, or your kids do, whether you live downtown or in the mountains, you’re busy. We get that. That’s why we have never offered conventional Monday to Friday classes. Blended learning has been our core offering for more than 20 years—because it works, and it doesn’t waste your time.
What is Blended Learning?
For core sciences and other theory, you will work online, with the support of faculty and your classmates. Each month, you will be in the classroom for four days. You can choose a class schedule that suits your needs: a four-day weekend once a month, or one day each week. You will also be on campus for supervised student clinic shifts.
schedule 1
Once a month
schedule 2
One day a week
Supervised student clinic shifts start midway through Year 1 and continue until the end of Year 2.
Including online assignments, classroom sessions, and clinic shifts, you should plan to invest 30-35 hours a week. You will be busy, but never bored!
30-35 hours a week
Online Component
Most of the academic work in our program happens online. You will complete the science and theory courses by interactive home study. On Moodle, our online learning platform, your directed reading assignments will be enriched by our custom-made videos, recorded lectures, and other online learning resources.Â
You will follow your own schedule, but you won’t be learning alone; you will have faculty support online and can collaborate with your fellow students in virtual chat rooms and study sessions.
Start learning right away
Our classes start in March or September each year, but you never have to wait to get going! As soon as you are registered, you can get a head start on our two core science courses, Anatomy & Physiology and Pathology.
This is a huge advantage because it will reduce your first-year workload. Best, you won’t pay any tuition until your first day in class.
In-Class Component
Because we teach most subjects online, including the core sciences, when you do come to school, you won’t find many lectures. Instead, you’ll work with your classmates on assessment and treatment planning and techniques. What you are learning about the human body through reading and assignments, you will put into practice in class. You will have four full in-class days per month on the class schedule you choose. You will develop your hands-on skills through demonstrations and by working on each other. When you’re back home, you’ll practice what you’ve learned on friends and family and prepare for the next in-class session.
If this appeals to you, our Admissions Team would love to hear from you. Our admissions advisors know the program inside out, and can answer your questions about the career, the program, and the student experience at Vicars School.
Clinical Experience
Beginning partway through first year, you will begin to add time in supervised student clinics to your schedule. At Vicars, our student practicum is not just a job placement or internship. It is a fully integrated part of our curriculum! Every shift includes specific learning goals, faculty supervision, charting, and a group debriefing session.
Blended learning may be a good fit if you:
- Want to complete your massage therapy diploma in less than two years but can’t be in class every weekday
- Have responsibilities or interests that make it better for you to study outside a rigid 9-5 schedule.Â
- Live more than an hour away from the closest massage school or college
- Are able to fit in 15-20 hours each week for reading and online assignments.
Moodle is the portal and platform that students use to work online. It is the school’s brain vault! It holds all the academic and support materials students will need, while connecting them to their fellow students and instructors.
Even if they have not experience on-line learning before, we have found that students quickly become familiar and comfortable with using it. Zoom or in-person tutorials are available as soon as a new student registers. These are 20-minute sessions and Heather, our systems coach, says that’s all it ever takes!
Vicars school only offers one program: a two-year, full-time diploma that will prepare you for a successful career as a professional massage therapist. While some schools do offer a certificate or one-year course (sometimes called relaxation, spa, or bodywork training), this type of training will not prepare you to be a professional massage therapist.
Massage therapy is a health care profession and it serves the public better if all massage professionals have the academic and skills training to assess and understand a range of conditions, and to create and safely carry out effective treatment, including relaxation techniques. Our schedules are designed to help students manage their other life commitments.
We do have an advanced placement option that is available to students who have already completed a portion of their training. For more information about direct entry into the second year of our program, visit our Advanced Placement page.
Let’s Connect
Our friendly and knowledgeable admissions advisors will help you decide for yourself if Vicars school is a good fit for you.
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