About the course
This page gives an overview of our three year, degree level, accredited acupuncture course but there is much more detail in our prospectus which you can download here. You can also find out why it is important to study at an accredited institution, get downloads for our fees and the dates for the upcoming student groups (we enrol in March and September). You can also apply to study with us if your mind is already made up. Any questions at all, do please get in touch, or check out our Admission FAQs.
From curious beginner to confident practitioner
Our acupuncture course is a fully accredited and degree level, leading to a Professional Licentiate which is the industry standard qualification. It is accredited by the British Acupuncture Accreditation Board, which means that on graduation you are able to join the British Acupuncture Council; the UK's largest and most prestigious professional body. Most importantly, high quality training at this level means that you will actually be able to treat patients both effectively, and safely, and to build a successful career as a result.
At TAA we teach all aspects of Chinese medical theory, with a clear focus on the five element, holistic approach. Our course is a blend of supported home study, using state of the art e-lessons covering all aspects of Chinese medical theory, as well as biomedicine (essential for safe and responsible practice), research, the therapeutic relationship, as well as how to set up and run a successful business. Class weekends take place ten times a year (with a couple of Friday's added in), and here you are taught and can practise, those vital clinical and diagnostic skills. This means that a good proportion of study can be done at home around current work and life commitments, while still being fully supported by our ongoing forums and personal tutors. You aren't just 'learning acupuncture online' then - taken together, these practical sessions amount to 150 additional skills hours than on previous degree programmes.
Our methods and structure are unique and built around busy people, and our third year structure is very special indeed. We are the only accredited college to offer one-to-one supervision, at a clinic near to where you live (or as near as we can sensibly make it), which means that you are absolutely hand held in those early clinic days, by an experienced supervisor clinician, while you find your feet. The best part is arguably that once you have passed your assessments in the middle of the third year, you are able to practice independently, under the watchful eye of the college still, and can start taking on paying patients who will form the bedrock of your future business. Graduation day? You'll already have a business up and running.
Discover
Develop
Practice
Start to understand acupuncture, the body, health and the principles that underpin Chinese medicine. You'll develop practical skills alongside theoretical knowledge, and start to discover what makes acupuncture such a fascinating and individualised form of healthcare
Build on your knowledge and deepen your understanding of patients, theory, and the world of Chinese medicine. You'll develop and refine your practical skills, learn to work with increasing confidence, and bring together the various elements of your training
All comes together now - working with real patients in a supervised clinic setting. Developing the confidence and experience needed to become a professional, successful practitioner. And once you have reached the required standard, you can treat paying patients while completing your studies - giving you the opportunity to build you practice before graduating.
Graduate
- begin your new career
And by your last day with us, you'll have much more than a qualification and an up-and-running clinic. You'll have the business and practical experience, clinical skills, professional knowledge AND the confidence to really create your own successful future.
HOW MUCH STUDY TIME EACH WEEK? As a degree level course, and because of the information that you will need to cover in order to be a safe, confident and effective practitioner, we recommend around 18 hours a week. This includes time spent practising skills though, not just sitting at a computer, and has fitted around work and homelife for many, many students to date
CAN I MAKE A LIVING AT THIS? This will obviously vary from graduate to graduate, but we surveyed graduates each year until recently, and on average we found that: ONE YEAR AFTER LEAVING US the average number of treatments each week that graduates are carrying out at this stage is 14. Using average treatment fees this equates to a gross income of around £840 per week then (London prices/ income will be higher), or around £40,320 pa (allowing for a few weeks off!). The average graduate is aiming to do 21 treatments a week, so this is 65% of their ultimate goal in terms of patients. But how does this compare to how much work they would ultimately like to be doing? On average, our graduates are aiming to carry out 21 treatments per week. So, one year after leaving us, they are around 65%, and this is a significant portion of your fees for the three years. THREE YEARS AFTER LEAVING US the average number of treatments per week that graduates are carrying out has reached 21, so by this time they have met their initial goals for the level of practice they wanted. Using average treatment fees, with a small lift post graduation (as you should charge more), this equates to a gross income of around £1,365 per week, or £65,520 pa outside London. You will be doing something you love, and making a good living into the bargain. Oh, and add to this the fact that our third year model allows you to take on patients who will pay you directly (as opposed to your supervisor) in the second half of your clinical year.
WHY NOT JUST DO A SHORT COURSE? We know that while you are looking for ways to enter this brilliant profession you will likely come across courses that are much shorter, taking place over weekends or months, many with little or no supervised clinical practice component. So why not just pick one of them? They look confident and flashy, and the sites often refer to an extensive body of research supporting the efficacy of acupuncture, which indeed there is, and that is because we as professional acupuncturists have worked incredibly hard in this regard. There is however no evidence at all, that doing a set list of points for a particular condition is effective in any way. It simply can't be because that's not how acupuncture works. Each patient is totally different, and an extensive knowledge of theory is essential in order to build a successful and personalised treatment plan, as is extensive practise locating the acupuncture points themselves because having a diagram of them doesn't mean you can find them. A reputable acupuncture course will therefore take time to complete because you are learning what you need to know in order to join a respected healthcare profession, taking responsibility for members of the public and their complex, often serious, health concerns. There really isn't a short cut to being good at this, and there is nothing more demoralising than starting off on a new career, taking paying customers, and then discovering that it simply doesn't work. Sorry to sound harsh - we don't mean to - but we, and the other accredited colleges, have spent decades working hard to maintain and raise standards. Accredited course Wherever you choose to study then (and of course we hope it is with us!), please check that the course is BAAB accredited. Their accreditation is the only way you can be sure you will have the high level of skills and theoretical knowledge needed to be effective in your new career. And if you'd like to know more, or support us as a profession in ensuring ongoing high standards in acupuncture training, you can read more and sign our petition. Please click here.
WILL AI TAKE MY JOB? We shouldn't even need to ask this question, but here we are. Like every profession, AI is likely to have uses, and there will be certainly be people out in the world inputting symptoms and getting lists of points to do on their 'patients' (*sigh*). Luckily for us though, there in unlikely to be demand for an AI robot that can gather the information actually needed, from taking pulses, to looking at tongues, to understanding exactly what it making the human being in front of us tick. Not to mention one that can find the actual points and then needle them. Even with a human to apply a treatment worked out using AI, it will be effective on a tiny proportion of people as Chinese medicine simply doesn't work like that. No matter what Tic Tok suggests then, while humanity is safe, and particularly while human interaction is an integral part of healthcare, we feel confident that we as a profession with still be standing when others less fortunate perhaps are not. And again, *sigh*
