Imagine combining a tropical cruise and family vacation with colleague support and networking, along with learning a skill that will help your clients when you return home—and at the same time, help you make more money. This is not a farfetched fantasy. It is the reality of destination continuing education seminars, one of the many methods of earning continuing education credits in the field of massage therapy and bodywork.
Most of these destination continuing education courses take place in a condensed time period, such as four days or one week. During that time, massage therapists and bodyworkers have a chance to learn new skill sets or bring their current techniques to a higher level.
Destination continuing education, as the name suggests, tends to take place in locales that could be considered top vacation destinations. Examples include that tropical cruise mentioned above, a warm coastal town, a ski resort, a peaceful ranch in the country and so on. Depending on the destination continuing education course you choose, it may or may not make sense to bring along friends or family on the trip. That will be up to you as you pick and choose the continuing education class that is right for you. Perhaps this is a time when you could use a little trip just for yourself, or maybe you have been searching for a way to spend quality time with your loved ones and take care of your career needs.
The setting and schedule of the continuing education seminar will likely be what dictates whether it is a trip for the whole family or for you alone. No matter which kind of destination continuing education you choose, you should still be able to benefit from a beautiful surrounding, as well as a sort of immersion into the learning process.
Of course, taking a trip to earn your continuing education credits and learn exciting new skills is not necessarily within reach of every massage therapist and bodyworker. Fortunately, there are quite a few other options when it comes to completing quality continuing education classes.
For starters, there is the traditional classroom experience, which most often involves attending a continuing education class at a set day and time each week for a certain period of time until the course is complete. Massage therapists and bodyworkers who wish to take a continuing education class like this will need to look for those courses being offered at sites close to where they live and work.
A third option, and one that has come to be embraced more and more, is to take a continuing education course online. The amount of structure, in terms of the class schedule and attendance policy, will depend on which online continuing education class you choose to take. There are some with highly flexible structures, allowing students to log on and “attend” whenever it suits their schedules. Others have a slightly more rigid schedule, and students must complete course work within set time periods.
Whether your next continuing education class happens on a boat, in a classroom or from the computer in your home, the most important part is the quality of education you receive.
—Brandi Schlossberg