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. You will have a year to complete your Assignments and ICMA tests. 

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.

No, there is no final exam. The course is based on continuous assessment, using marked assignments and Interactive Computer Marked Assessments (ICMAs).  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. If this happens, with your marked assignments your advisor will explain the problem and ask you to complete the assignment again. With the ICMA's, you can simply re--try the test when you are ready.  

We advise writing up assignments on a Word Processor, and uploading this to the portal. 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.

We ask students to upload their assignments to our portal directly, but upon request we can accept work submitted 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. 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.

3. Does it teach you about setting up your own business? College courses are often weak on this point.

4. 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.

You are allocated a dedicated support advisor for your course. 

The advisor marks your first and final assignments, and helps you with any problems. 

You can phone your course advisor at the Blackford Centre at any time during work hours. If you leave a message out of work hours, we'll ring you back the next working day. You can also contact us via email on: support@inst.org.

The course is primarily theory based, due to it being a distance learning course. The course is especially suitable for those who have one or more of the following experiences:

- A background in nursing, allied health care or nail tech.

- Some involvement with foot health care, perhaps allied to their day job.

- Access to a friend or family member who can help you get hands-on practical experience.

- Work for a company that can provide practical support

However, we’re happy to accept learners who do not fit these criteria.

We do cover practical indirectly within the course. We achieve this by using case study based assignments, to help you apply your knowledge to a realistic setting, and by using video content as a visual aid.

We also encourage students to complete voluntary work, work experience, and practice on friends and family alongside the course, to build up practical skills and confidence working with clients.

It is important for every student to pick a course that is right for them, and we encourage your to consider a range of courses and training options, to find something well suited to you as an individual.

We love our course, and think it’s a great choice for many, but can appreciate it cannot be right for everyone. For some students, distance learning is perfect, while others might prefer a classroom setting, or need more practical support.

Take some time to consider what support you need, and how you learn best, to help ensure you pick a course suited to your needs, that will help you achieve your goal.

The course is primarily for people who want to set up their own foot health practice. There are also openings for salaried work in foot care. You could become an assistant to a podiatrist. To get a job in a public organisation, you'll probably need more qualifications than we can offer. Our course is designed to help you work with private clients. The easiest way to earn a living is to work for yourself. So in the course we focus on how you can work as a foot care practitioner.

The South Africa Health Professions Act 56 of 1974 controls who may work on peoples feet. 

Under the act, only podiatrists may do the following:

(a) Diagnose foot disorders and foot disabilities

(b) Treat foot disorders and foot disabilities by means of:

(i) the removal of corns, callosities, plantar warts and similar keratinous lesions; (ii) the correction of nail abnormalities; (iii) appliances. (c) The use and prescription of treatment, medicines and corrective footwear to effect the aforesaid treatments.

This means you may:

Help friends and family, in a non-paying role

Give advice to paying clients, but not prescribe treatment.

You may not:

Remove corns and other lesions

Use a scalpel

Prescribe treatment or corrective footwear

What is an appliance? (See B iii above)

Dictionary.com defines an appliance as: a. an instrument, apparatus, or device for a particular purpose or use. b. a piece of equipment, usually operated electrically, especially for use in the home or for performance of domestic chores, as a refrigerator, washing machine, or toaster.

So it depends on whether you regard a pair of scissors as an appliance or not. We don’t believe it is.

For the official information, click here: https://www.hpcsa.co.za/Uploads/PPB/Rules%20and%20Regulations/regulations_g

Organisations in SA

HPCSA: The Health Professions Council of South Africa: www.hpcsa.co.za

HPCSA is a statutory body that regulates health professions in SA.

PASA: The non-official podiatrists’ association will say you must have a degree from the University of Johannesburg. It is not a regulatory body, more of a trade union: https://www.podiatrist.co.za

What this means for you

The podiatrists are jealous of their position, and want to keep others out. They want to keep their monopoly, even though this means people suffer and go without treatment.

The podiatrists have managed to persuade the government that they - and only they - can work on people’s feet. They have managed to get the legislation framed in the widest possible way.

It is up to you to decide whether you may practise as a Foot Health Care Specialist, focussing primarily on cutting toenails. You should always take legal advice before taking any steps that could involve podiatry.

We cannot be held responsible for any actions you may take. You should not take this article as legal advice.

Note: You can call yourself a Foot Health Care Specialist. There are no restrictions on the use of this title.

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.

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.