Today’s blog post was inspired by questions we receive from those of you considering study with the Academy and careers in the wedding and event industry. If you have been thinking about a career as a Wedding or Event Planner, Stylist or Designer, you may have also wondered; Do I need wedding and event qualifications to work in the industry?
To help with answering this question I turned to UK Academy Tutor and Course Advisor Zoe McKeown, who also works in the industry as a Wedding Planner. Zoe knows first-hand what employers and clients are looking for from the professionals they work with. Here’s Zoe’s answer to the question of what qualification you will need to work in the wedding and event industry.
Officially there is no one specific qualification that will enable you to work in the industry. It is more about matching your learning needs to a course. If you have more up to date knowledge of the job your confidence will increase and that will give you the best chance to succeed. So decide what you think you want to learn and at what level. It is always best to choose a course that is accredited and recognised in the industry as this will carry the most weight on a CV/Resume. A qualification will allow you to explore your own skills and to see where you can best utilise them moving your career forward. It is always a good idea to take a course that allows you to get full support from an experienced tutor to ensure you get started on the right path with the best advice.
This is the same answer we will give you whether you are enquiring from Australia and New Zealand, North America or the United Arab Emirates.
Officially there is no one specific qualification that will enable you to work in the industry. It is more about matching your learning needs to a course. If you have more up to date knowledge of the job your confidence will increase and that will give you the best chance to succeed. So decide what you think you want to learn and at what level. It is always best to choose a course that is accredited and recognised in the industry as this will carry the most weight on a CV/Resume. A qualification will allow you to explore your own skills and to see where you can best utilise them moving your career forward. It is always a good idea to take a course that allows you to get full support from an experienced tutor to ensure you get started on the right path with the best advice.
This is the same answer we will give you whether you are enquiring from Australia and New Zealand, North America or the United Arab Emirates.
Put more bluntly, you can call yourself a Wedding Planner or Event Manager right now, without doing a course. You can save the money you would use for a course and put it towards a website for example. But and this is an important but, if you haven’t gained the skills and knowledge you need to do the job, will you have the confidence you need to stand behind the claims you are going to make about yourself on that website (or on your CV if you are going to go after a job)? Will you know where to start when it comes to working with clients and helping to manage their wedding or event? Will you be able to convince people to buy your services instead of your competitor’s, who may have the qualification that you decided not to get? To answer these important, ‘but’ questions, consider the skills, knowledge and experience you have and then review our courses to determine if there are things within them that you need to learn or become better at and then also consider how you are going to give your future clients the confidence they need to choose you, instead of someone else. This will help you decide if YOU need a wedding or event qualification.
A final word on qualifications. Sometimes we can talk ourselves out of working towards something, like a qualification, because it seems too big and out of reach. That is fear talking. Ask yourself what is it that I really want and how can I achieve it. At the Academy we say; dream BIG!
