We’re the Obvious Choice for Beauty Therapy and Nail Technology Training

Why The National School of Aesthetics Is the South Island’s Obvious Choice for Beauty Therapy, Nail Technology and Spa Therapies Training

The National School of Aesthetics remains the South Island’s obvious choice for beauty, nail, and spa training. With over 37 years’ experience teaching beauty courses, we can let the facts and figures speak for themselves.

Impressive Facts and Figures

Between 2003 and 2019, on average:

94%

Our ākonga / students who gained at least one or more qualifications in their programme

93%

Our graduates who gained employment or went on to further study

81%

Our graduates who gained 80% or higher score overall in their programme

98%

Our ākonga / students who sat and passed external international examinations

12%

Our graduates who gained 90% of higher score overall in their course

66%

Members of our ākonga / student body who are aged between 17 to 24 years old at the programme’s start

85%

Members of our ākonga / student body who are from Canterbury

Facts and figures are up-to-date as of 27 July 2020.

Our Training and Us

  • We remain the longest-established NZQA-Registered beauty provider in New Zealand, still owned and operated by an original owner.
  • Our New Zealand Certificate in Nail Technology programme is the oldest NZQA-Approved course teaching nail technology in New Zealand.
  • We offer the most comprehensive, longest-running, leading edge New Zealand Certificate and Diploma in Beauty Therapy programme in the South Island.
  • It only takes 18 months to complete a full diploma in beauty therapy with us; it’s not a two year course or a certificate or a partial beauty therapy qualification.
  • Our training is some of the best in New Zealand and the world; we lead in this field.

Our History

  • We’ve been teaching this for over 37 years. No other provider in New Zealand has been teaching in this field for that long.
  • Our owner is a qualified beauty therapist. Noel and his former co-owner Don opened the school in 1985. In 2013, the New Zealand Association of Registered Beauty Practitioners awarded them the “Contribution to the Beauty Industry” award for their “significant contribution to its development”. In 2017, they were inducted into the Beauty Therapy Hall of Fame. In 2021, they were given honourary lifetime memberships.
  • Both the 2015-16 and 2017-18 Beauty Therapists of the Year have been NaSA graduates. Approximately 26% of the finalists and 40% of the winners in the 2017-18 Beauty Awards were NaSA graduates. (We only get about 5% of the beauty education funding in New Zealand.)
  • International examiners and visitors tell us we’re one of Australasia’s top providers. Our premises are “world-class” and “leading-edge”.
  • 32% of our ākonga / students come from somewhere outside Christchurch: the South Island, throughout New Zealand and internationally.
  • We’ve trained thousands of excellent beauty therapists, spa therapists and nail technicians to an internationally superb standard.

More One-on-One Time with Your Tutor

Did you know?

Other beauty therapy education providers can take up to 30 students in one class?

We have some of the smallest class sizes in New Zealand, with:

  • 12 ākonga / students per each beauty or spa practical class; and
  • 10 ākonga / students per each nail technology practical class.
  • That’s a 6-to-1 ākonga / student-to-tutor ratio in most beauty therapy and spa therapies practical classes; and
  • A 5-to-1 to 10-to-1 in most nail technology practical classes.
  • Most other providers take 16 or more ākonga / students per class.
  • You are an individual ākonga / student, not a number to us, and your success is important to us.

What Makes Us Different

Since 1985, we have been teaching quality beauty therapy, nail technology and spa therapy courses to an internationally-recognised level.

We’re two decades older than our youngest ākonga / students!


In our 37 years of operation, we’ve trained thousands of beauty therapists, nail technicians and spa therapists.

We remain the longest established beauty therapy, nail technology and spa therapy provider in New Zealand and amongst the most successful in New Zealand.


We are owned and operated by one of our original owners, a fully-qualified beauty therapist.

Noel Turner is highly qualified in beauty therapy and post-graduate areas; he’s here at the school and not some highly-paid CEO who knows nothing about beauty therapy and sits behind a desk in some other building or city all day. In 2013, the New Zealand Association of Registered Beauty Practitioners recognised Noel’s and co-founder Don Kendall’s “significant contribution to the development of the beauty therapy industry in New Zealand” through the “Contribution to the Industry” award, and in 2017, they were inducted into the New Zealand Beauty Hall of Fame. In 2021, they were made honourary lifetime members of the New Zealand Association of Registered Beauty Practitioners.


We can offer quality internationally-recognised qualifications proven as industry-recognised.

ITEC is the largest major international, industry-recognised qualification in New Zealand. You want to travel after you’ve graduated? These are the qualifications that will allow you to do that.


We’re renowned for our high quality training.

We’ve had good reports from the NZQA, TEC and ITEC. Our graduates continue to do well in the New Zealand Beauty Awards, including the 2015-16 Beauty Therapist of the Year and 2017-18 Beauty Therapist of the Year being NaSA graduates. Two out of the three finalists for 2017-18 Beauty Therapist of the Year were also NaSA graduates. Our pass rates continue to be higher than the national and international average.


Our programmes teach you the skills and techniques you need.

These programmes are not product-based; the main goal is to enable you to become a professional and empower you with the knowledge to make an informed choice about the products you use, not tell you what product to use.


We have only twelve ākonga / students maximum per most practical classes.

That’s all! Six ākonga / students work on the other six ākonga / students in most practical sessions in most programmes. Nail technology students have a maximum of 10 ākonga / students per class. This is amongst the smallest class sizes in New Zealand.


We are selective in enrolment.

Our interview process ensures we choose those who show the highest promise.


We enrol ākonga / students from around New Zealand.

Ākonga / students move from places as far a field from Christchurch as Gisborne, Wellington, Invercargill, Nelson, Dunedin and even Auckland to study with us!


We provide the products in your training in beauty therapy and spa therapies programmes.

Your programme fees pay for the products used in the programme you are enrolled in. You don’t need any product kits while you’re at the school training if you’re in our beauty therapy or spa therapies programmes.


We have qualified some of the therapists working on nearly every continent and in nearly every body of water around the world.

We even have a world-renowned cruise ship company holding interviews at the school on an annual basis!


We use professional products in our training.

We buy quality products the professionals use for ākonga / students to use once they are properly instructed in the product.


We tend to be a school of firsts.

We have been the first to do a lot of things, including the first beauty therapy school in New Zealand to have an email account (1993), the first to have a Web page (1996), the first to move into a high rise office building, the first to move into an exclusive office park (1997), the first to use the government subsidies to reduce qualification costs (2000), the first to be AS/NZS ISO 9001:2000 accredited (2002), the first to have a two-year NZQA Audit cycle (2002), the first private beauty therapy school to offer its ākonga / students email accounts (2004), the first to have a three-year NZQA Audit cycle (2004) and the first to offer a zero course fees Certificate in Nail Technology (2005), reduced fees for the Certificate in Nail Technology (2006) and the first South Island provider to offer NZQA-Approved spa therapy courses (2006), and the first provider in New Zealand to offer a pure spa therapies diploma-level course (2008). We also are the first private beauty therapy school to offer ākonga / students a secure, on-line forum to discuss qualification-related issues (2005). We are the first NZQA-Registered provider to offer an NZQA-Approved Diploma-level Spa Therapies course (2008). We were one of the first PTEs in Christchurch to rebuild after the 2011 quakes (2011/2012) and the Prime Minister used us as an example of tertiary education rebuilding in Christchurch. As a result, we have “world class” training facilities. We are the first South Island beauty therapy provider to receive a “highly confident” rating in both areas from NZQA (2013) and the first (and only) South Island beauty therapy education provider to have their owners or staff members win the Beauty Therapy Association’s Contribution to the Beauty Industry award (2013), be inducted into the Beauty Therapy Hall of Fame (2017), or be granted honourary lifetime membership in the Association (2021). We continue to push the fold, and others follow where we lead.


We have amongst the highest ākonga / student-to-equipment ratios in the country.

We purchase our equipment new from reputable dealers and suppliers, and only purchase brand name equipment.

Launch your beauty career with NaSA!

We have given you several reasons as to why we believe you should choose the National School of Aesthetics, but ultimately you are the one who decides. We have offered thousands of ākonga / students training, and the large majority of them have used us as a launching point to follow and pursue their dreams. Become a leader in this exciting industry through us!