This story is no longer valid.
In light of our 25th anniversary, as stated before, we’re making a few changes, and some of these changes are to make the information we give prospective students and their loved ones as concise but informative as possible.
In the last few days, I’ve been updating our Web site to make it easier-to-read, mostly by revamping tables, de-emphasizing “the fine print” by making it, well, fine print, and, most importantly, adding pictures to give the reader “a break” once in a while. The thing with a Web site is it is a living, breathing document; it evolves as time marches on, usually for better (one hopes). We’ve also made some content “reveal-able”, i.e. when you click on a link, the information expands (as opposed to pop-up in a new window, which sent many an internet browser putting warnings up).
All in all, there’s that great struggle between providing information everyone wants, content people like me (the i’s-dotted-and-t’s-crossed people: you know who you are) would like if I were reading the Web site as a prospective student and the beauty and, well, for lack of a better word, design aesthetic.
The prospectus, on the other hand, has to have so many printed in order to make it a viable exercise. I used to create them and print them on my own, but, a few years back, we found printing a run of them professionally would be much cheaper than printing them ourselves. The problem with creating your own documents for professional publication is once they are published, that’s it. You have to live with any problems or out-of-date information you might have in there.
So, there were some mistakes I made (hey, even I am human!) to the first professionally-printed prospectus on my watch, and I’m hoping I’ve learned from those mistakes. The prospectus under development now has much more simplified and easier-to-understand information with a more uniform look throughout it, and we’ve also tried to trim the number of pages with more emphasis on our Web site.
We’re hoping to have the new prospectus up-and-running by the beginning of May. Keep an eye on our Web site for more information, and if you have any suggestions about our Web site, I’d be keen to hear your input.
Scott Fack is the Director of Operations for The National School of Aesthetics, the South Island’s leading beauty therapy, nail technology and spa therapies training provider.