Our British Wheel of Yoga Diploma Course Certificates arrived earlier this year. We finished the training last year but the certificates take a little while to be issued. But they are certainly worth waiting for!
Paul & Steve modelling their Diploma certificates!
The British Wheel of Yoga Diploma in teaching yoga is a Level 4 diploma. Learning hours on the course are a minimum of 500 hours. It comprises eight units as follows;
Applied Anatomy and Physiology and the Teaching of Asana
Yoga Breathing Practices and Relaxation
Planning for Teaching and the Responsibilities of a Yoga Teacher
Planning and Delivering a Yoga Course
Teaching Asana: Observation, Adjustment and Protection of Vulnerable Areas of the Body
Hatha Yoga and Pranayama
The Teaching and Philosophy of Meditation
Progression in Yoga
As a result of the above units you get a fantastic grounding in all things yoga. The British Wheel of Yoga qualifications actually prepare you to teach yoga.
OFQUAL regulated
OFQUAL regulated qualification
In the corner of our British Wheel of Yoga Diploma certificates is the OFQUAL logo. OFQUAL is the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation and regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England. (Here is their website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofqual) This means that the British Wheel of Yoga course must meet certain regulatory framework requirements. It also means that every course has a verifier who check the standard of the training and the written work.
The world of Yoga teacher training is unregulated and as such the quality of trainings vary massively. This varies from short courses below 200 hours and even some correspondence courses. The industry standard is 200 hours which is often crammed into a month long period via a trip to an exotic location. As a former learning and development professional I know that cramming intense learning into such a short period of time is not good practice. Can you really learn a profession in one month? With the British Wheel of Yoga you are getting an OFQUAL regulated 500 hour training course. This really is a reassuring mark of quality.
When searching out Yoga Teacher training courses, you are preparing to make a significant financial investment in your training. As a result make sure you do some due diligence to avoid being disappointed. The British Wheel of Yoga offer an unrivalled quality of teacher training as one would expect of the Governing Body for Yoga in the UK. You can check out their website here: https://www.bwy.org.uk/
This weekend marked the last day of our British Wheel of Yoga diploma course up in Troon in Scotland with Carol Price. It also marked 3 years since we first met our wonderful tutor Carol Price and began training with her.
A serious end of course pitcureSlightly less serious exuberance
Our first Yoga Teacher Training qualification
Our first teacher training course which we started in February 2016 with Yoga Alliance as the awarding body left us feeling unprepared to teach yoga. I am sure that there are some very good courses out there with Yoga Alliance as the awarding body. In fact I have been on some myself, however our first Yoga teacher training course certainly wasn’t one of them.
British Wheel of Yoga Certificate in Teaching Yoga
Feeling quite despondent, we were recommended to look at the British Wheel of Yoga. We found a certificate course running in Salford with Paul Fox (then BWY chair) and Carol Price. I had a chat with Paul and we decided that we would embark on another teacher training course that would actually teach us to teach yoga! The British Wheel of Yoga Level 4 Certificate course has BWY Qualifications as its awarding body which is regulated by OFQUAL. This was more like it! A qualification that we could be proud of. There was a lot of hard work, learning and academic essays to complete. We were also assessed teaching a real 90 minute class with real students. The final day of the course was very emotional and we felt very proud of our certificate. This was a world apart from our previous experience!
British Wheel of Yoga Diploma in Teaching Yoga
We then became aware that Carol Price had a British Wheel of Yoga diploma course which was part way through. It was possible we could tag on to the course and upgrade our qualification to the highest level of OFQUAL regulated Yoga Teacher Training available, the BWY Level 4 Diploma. We gave this serious consideration. The course was running in Troon in Scotland and obviously entailed a further significant financial and time investment. Both of us wanted to continue our learning with Carol and felt it was absolutely the right thing to do.
The British Wheel of Yoga diploma top up has been a fantastic experience. It covers 3 modules on Hatha Yoga & Pranayama, the teaching & philosophy of meditation and progression in yoga.
On the course we dived deep into the ancient texts and looked at how we could make them relevant for our classes and create rich layered lessons. The formal essay writing was the part that I found particularly enjoyable. It really encouraged me to read around the topics and to draw together references and importantly allowed me to work out my own opinions. There was also a further assessment of us teaching one of our real weekly 90 minute classes, and those who come to our classes may remember Carol sitting in the corner! Despite having been teaching for 3 years at the point of being assessed it was still a very nerve wrecking experience. I felt supported and buoyed by the lovely yoga students who attend our class.
Carol Price – Celtic Yoga
Let me just say a few words about Carol Price our Diploma Course Tutor. Carol has been a wonderful guide to us on our diploma course. She never fails to come up with either a wonderful pearl of wisdom, a lovely new mobilisation exercise or an intelligent imaginative sequence. Carol always provided constructive and helpful feedback. One of her catch phrases being “what could make you even better would be….”. She has been an extremely important teacher to us. We can’t thank her enough, we will always affectionately refer to her as our Yoga Mama!
As an already qualified yoga teacher (at least twice over) when embarking on the Diploma top up I was keen to get as much out of it as possible. When deciding to do further training / CPD I want to gain extra knowledge that is going to make me a better teacher. This is certainly what we got in bucket loads from the diploma course with Carol. It has also been a greatly enriching personal journey studying in depth the ancient yogic texts and pulling together formal assignments.
We are both very proud to be British Wheel of Yoga teachers. With an OFQUAL regulated awarding body, you know that you are going to get excellent quality training and rigorous assessment. It may feel like a lot of hard work as you progress through the BWY training but this is exactly why it is worth it. You come out the other end of the training prepared and ready to teach yoga to all ability classes. The staged approach to teaching that the BWY train you in is all inclusive. We have in our classes students who are retired yoga teachers and others who are completely new to yoga. Both are able to practice side by side.
Choose Wisely
There are so many different yoga teacher training courses out there, I even saw one that was a correspondence course! Choose wisely. How long does it really take to learn a profession such as teaching yoga? In an unregulated arena go for regulated courses. Do your homework. Speak to previous trainees. Spend your money and time wisely and you won’t regret it.
