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Child Counselling Courses

The Blackford Centre

Where and when can I do the course?

You can start the course at any time: today, tomorrow or next month. Whenever is best for you
You can study at home, or wherever you want. The course does not involve you being in a classroom or going to a test centre

Many students complete the course in five months. But you can do it as quickly or slowly as you want. That's one advantage of distance learning.

You will have permanent access to the course. Tutoring is available until the end of January 2025.

Costs

You can find the cost of the course by clicking 'Fees and Registration' in the grey menu.

Yes. You can make five monthly payments. There is no extra charge. You can find the cost of paying by instalments by clicking 'Fees and Registration', and then 'Pay Monthly'.

Yes. Just let us know within 60 days of receiving it, and return it in good condition (if you have the printed edition) , and we'll send you a full refund.

Course Structure

No, there is no final exam. The course is based on continuous assessment, through the assignments you send to your tutor. And continuous assessment lets you check all the time that you're on course to succeed. So you should look at the assignment as an exciting challenge. No, it's true! You'll enjoy them. We promise you!
You do the work again! 80% of students complete the course without ever failing an assignment. But you might misunderstand the question, or produce an insufficiently detailed answer. So the tutor will explain the problem and ask you to send in the assignment again. When you do this, your work will be much better.
We advise writing up assignments on a Word Processor, and submitting this via email. This is because typically it is the quickest and most direct way to get your work marked, with no additional postage cost. However, we appreciate that every student is different, and if you would prefer to handwrite your assignments, we do allow this.

Yes, we encourage submitting work this way!

Yes, you can.

We advise working through the course in order, but this is not a requirement. 

So, if you want to tackle a particular topic, you can go straight to that module. This is useful if you have a job or a client that requires you to know about a particular subject. You might note that some other organisations supply only one or two modules at a time.

We send you the whole course when you enrol. This means you can study any topic you want to. You can also see what topics are coming up. Getting everything in one package makes it easier for you to get an overview of the course. As we mentioned above, some other organisations supply only one or two modules at a time.

We think this is the best course in the world. Bar none. But please examine other courses before making a decision. Consider these points:

1. Is the course comprehensive?

2. Will your studies be supported by a tutor? Research shows that people succeed much better on courses that include a personal tutor.

3. Is it interactive? That is, do the course materials regularly make you stop and think, and do exercises? Too many courses consist of page after page of boring lecture notes.

4. Is it endorsed?

5. Can you get a refund if you don't like the course?

For our course, the answer to all these questions is 'Yes'. But check out other courses as well before enrolling. We want to you make the choice that's right for you.

Further study

No. But it will help you set up and run your own business. And we encourage all students to continue their studies after completing the course.

Counselling in SA

Saqa says: “There is currently very limited or no recognition or regulation of counsellors. There is very little consistency in standards across and within provinces in South Africa, and across different counselling contexts. Unqualified counsellors currently work in a variety of contexts often in environments where mental health proffesionals such as psychologists and social workers are not necessarily accessible to the majority of the population". Source: http://regqs.saqa.org.za You may not call yourself a Registered Counsellor, or a Psychologist. These are 'reserved titles' controlled by HPCSA. Currently you may call yourself a 'Counsellor', though this may change in future years if the word becomes a controlled title. You may call yourself a Therapist or a Therapy Counsellor, and you can legally practise using those titles. If you want to be cautious, you could call yourself a Therapist (or a title such as Family Therapist, Addictions Therapist, Grief Therapist or Therapy Counsellor). You can legally practise using such titles. However this does not consititute legal advice. You should always seek qualified legal advice.
AHPCSA (The Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa) is a statutory health body. However there is no government control over counsellors in South Africa at the time of writing. The AHPCSA legislation governs all medical and mental health professionals. The legislation is primarily intended to regulate doctors and dentists, but to be absolutely safe, it would be wise to give your clients a document pointing out that you are not going to treat any medical or mental conditions.

Me and my location

Yes. Please talk to us about how we can accommodate you. We're able to make suitable accommodations.

You don’t need any specific qualifications or experience. You just need the motivation to succeed.

  • Don't worry. We understand. But this course is nothing like your memories of being stuck inside a stuffy classroom on a summer's day with an old-fashioned teacher droning on.
  • For a start, this is a subject that interests you (or you wouldn't have got this far).
  • And getting this deep into the website shows that you can absorb information and concentrate for long periods of time.
  • Also, you'll see that we write clearly and simply. And that's how we've written the course materials. It's true that some organisations write long and boring pages that make your eyes glaze over. We promise you that our course is nothing like that. You'll find this course is informative and enjoyable. In fact, many students are almost upset at finishing the course.

About the organisation

When you start comparing us with other course providers you might notice that:

  • 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.
  • Many of our courses include details on business, marketing and finance, or finding a job (as applicable). This is something other courses tend to miss out. 

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 national awarding organisation. (You can phone them to verify that).

You can read the Reviews of our students on the web site.

We publish an Ethical statement here

We're registered at Companies House: registration number 352 4886

Our VAT number is 729 1528 23

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.

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Speak to
an advisor on
087
551 1850