What To Look For When Considering A Yoga Teacher Training
Are you planning to attend Yoga Teacher Training?
When investing your time and money in Yoga Teacher Training, you want to make sure you have all the facts to aid in this decision. The following is meant as a guide to help trainees as they start out on this very exciting venture.
There are questions to ask and items to consider, making sure you find the right program for you. You want to be sure you are comparing apples to apples when it comes to pricing, as some pricing is not transparent. A good Yoga Teacher Training school should have a website that details all the information you need to make an informed decision; their pricing and requirements should be transparent and easy for you to find when looking at their website. Per Yoga Alliance requirements, the total contact hours should add up to 180 contact hours and the website should have a clear and well spelled out refund policy.
For your own protection, make sure the school is a registered business with the State. This will offer you added protection if they are a registered business. In the State of NC you can find this information by clicking here. Type in the name of the business, and if they are registered with the State, they will pop up. If they are not registered, it will show 0 records found.
A majority of these questions below relate to the 200 Hour Program, however, they can be applied to the 300/500 Hour Program. The biggest difference would be:
The 300/500 Hour Program requires 270 Contact Hours as per Yoga Alliance. Find out how these are accomplished.
One question for the 300/500 Hour is if the Program is new material that will add on to and expand on your 200 Hour Training, or is this a repeat of the 200 Hour material (and the same material they teach in their 200 Hour Program)? Are you attending the 200 hour training with the 200 hour trainees as part of your RYT500 Program?
Questions To Ask:
What is the total cost of the Yoga Teacher Training?
This can vary greatly depending on the Teacher Training Program. A low-cost training may actually be much more costly when you factor in the additional hidden costs that you are not aware of when registering for that particular Program. It may also take a lot more of your time if you need to attend a lot of classes and workshops outside of training (you will need to drive to each one of these).
Some questions to ask:
- Is the cost paid up front the entire cost to the trainee for the Yoga Teacher Training or will the trainee be required to attend additional classes and workshops at an additional cost to the trainee?
- How many classes (hours) and workshops and the cost of each? The school should be able to provide this information in a complete list and the hours should add up to 180 contact hours or you are not getting the Yoga Alliance minimum requirement or what you paid for.
- Will the training provide a comprehensive manual(s) or will the trainee be required to purchase additional books for an additional cost?
- How many books/materials and the cost? The school should be able to provide a complete list to you prior to registering for their training (or at minimum the full cost of the books/materials). Ask where you will purchase these books/materials.
Are all the required hours included in the Teacher Training Schedule?
Yoga Alliance requires 180 contact hours to complete your Yoga Teacher Training. These contact hours are required in the presence of the facilitators/trainers for the Yoga Teacher Training School as listed on the Yoga Alliance website for each school. This cannot include lunch hours during training (unless it’s a working lunch in the presence of the facilitator) and only one 10-minute break per hour is allowed by Yoga Alliance (these cannot be combined into a 20 or 30 minute break every 2-3 hours). Be sure you are getting the training hours you paid for and required by Yoga Alliance. Add up the hours on the schedule provided for the training, does it equal 180 Contact Hours (in the presence of the school facilitators). If not, ask how the additional hours are made up. Ask is there is a lunch break and how that hour is made up.
Is the training live in person or online?
Yoga Alliance has approved online Yoga Teacher Training during COVID, however, learning to teach yoga this way is very difficult, if not impossible in our opinion. This is why as soon as we were able to offer in person trainings again, we did. Having a mentor in person that can guide you and offer feedback is very helpful as you navigate through this process. Many teachers need additional in person training after taking an online training, be sure to ask if the majority, if not all their training is online or in person.
What is the refund policy?
Yoga Alliance requires all Yoga Schools registered with them to have a transparent refund policy that each trainee is aware of. This should be on their website. If a school does not have a website, how can you see what the refund policy is before registering? If there is an issue after registering, what can you refer to if this information is not on their website? Transparency is important so that the trainee knows what to expect and the school is clear about their policies.
How do you make up missed time?
Per Yoga Alliance requirements, missed hours need to be made up in the presence of the school facilitators and should cover the material missed in training.
Questions to ask:
- How is this accomplished by the school?
- Are you paying for private lessons to make up the time?
- What is the cost?
- Is there another weekend available at another location where the material is covered and you can attend? What is the cost?
- Do you need to wait until next year?
- Are they just not going to cover the material with you and require you home study?
- The bottom line is, what is the cost to make up missed time?
- Is there a waiver for this fee if there is a true emergency?
What is the focus of the school?
What can you expect to know upon completion of the program? This basically comes down to what you want to get out of the training. Are you looking for a spiritual training? Ask if that is the focus. Is your goal to learn to teach a safe, effective class upon graduation? Ask if that is the focus and how this is accomplished. Are you looking for a school that has continuing education? Ask if this is available and what type of continuing education.
We hope you found this helpful and would be happy to answer any questions you may have whether you attend our training or another training. Our goal to help future Yoga instructors make the best decision for their own Yoga Teacher Training.
How is the training presented?
Does the school dedicate considerable time to cover material and begin with basic yoga teaching information or are you given an abundance of material making it difficult to absorb and assimilate the information? This can be overwhelming. Do you learn to teach basic classes before learning information related to teaching specific populations that require more time and experience? For example, Yoga Alliance considers Children’s and Prenatal Yoga to be Specialty Yoga categories that require more extensive training; at a minimum it should be a full weekend of training for you to learn all the material required to teach these specialized populations.
See our comparison chart for further information.