Nail Technician

The Nail Technician programme is 240 clock hours, delivered only via the hybrid method: 120 theory hours online and the remaining 120 theory and service hours on site.

• Day — Monday to Thursday, 9:00am to 3:00pm (24 hours a week)
• Evening — Monday to Thursday, 5:00pm to 10:00pm (20 hours a week)

New classes begin the first day of each week and all courses have open entry. The school is open Monday to Friday and closed Saturday and Sunday.

Satisfactory academic progress is evaluated at 120 actual hours, and you must meet both the attendance and the academic requirement at each point. Attendance must be at least 66.67 per cent of the hours possible, calculated as hours accrued over hours scheduled. Falling short puts you on warning for one period, then on probation if an appeal succeeds; the school advises you in writing on what to do at each stage.

The academy is closed for Martin Luther King Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the Friday after, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after, and New Year’s Eve and Day. It follows the Broward County School Board on weather-related closures.

Kaizen publishes one schedule of charges per programme. For Nail Technician:

• Tuition — $1,450.00
• Application fee — $100.00
• Books and materials — $250.00

That is $1,800.00 in total, exactly what those lines add up to and exactly the figure the academy prints as the total programme cost.

Two things sit outside that total, and the catalog says so explicitly. Licensing, criminal background check and examination fees are a separate cost from any other fee listed in the catalog. And a re-entry fee of $125 may be charged if you withdraw and return. Transcript copies cost $5.

Financial aid is available to those who qualify, and Kaizen’s financial aid department will help you work out whether you do. The programmes are the Federal Pell Grant, which is need-based and never repaid, and the William D. Ford Direct Loan Program — Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Stafford Loans and Direct PLUS Loans for parents of dependent students. Direct Loans require at least half-time enrolment; subsidised interest is paid by the government while you are in school, unsubsidised interest accrues from disbursement, and repayment begins six months after you graduate, leave, or drop below half time. Entrance and exit counselling are required.

Start with the FAFSA. The school notes that any evaluation affecting your satisfactory academic progress may also affect your financial aid eligibility, and it will notify you in writing.

$1,450.00 tuition; $1,800.00 in total with the $100 application fee and $250.00 of books and materials.

The Nail Technician programme is designed to prepare students for Florida state licensure and for entry-level employment. On completing the programme — passing all tests with satisfactory grades, completing the mandatory clock hours and services, and settling outstanding tuition and fees — you are awarded a Diploma.

Kaizen is explicit that the diploma is not the licence: graduates cannot practise until they have passed the state examination, and the academy assists graduates in registering to sit it. Roles graduates move into include Nail Salon Technician and Nail Salon Manager among others.

Licensing, criminal background check and examination fees are separate from the programme cost, so budget for them in addition to tuition.

Graduates of this programme are registered with the State on completion, which is the route Florida uses for these specialities rather than a separate examination in every case — confirm the current requirement with the academy, since licensing rules and fees are set by the state and sit outside the programme cost.

Expect to study in two places at once. Every Kaizen programme is hybrid, and this one is delivered as 120 theory hours online and the remaining 120 theory and service hours on site. The theory is genuinely online — the academy has a distance education policy — and the services genuinely happen on campus.

Expect services to be counted, not just hours. Alongside the clock hours you must complete a set number of client services — 113 for this programme, and graduation requires all of them plus passing every programme test and settling your account.

Expect attendance to be measured against 66.67 per cent of the hours possible, reviewed at each evaluation point together with your academic standing. You must meet both to stay in satisfactory academic progress, and the school notifies you in writing when an evaluation may affect your financial aid.

Expect a small, single-site academy in Pembroke Pines, open Monday to Friday and closed at weekends, with new classes starting the first day of each week. The academy notes that some programmes demand physical capabilities such as standing for long periods, and that a student needing assistance to meet them arranges and pays for it themselves.