That international diploma level 3 in Reiki offered by ITEC doesn't have UK accreditation, but it seems that it did get accredited once. Between October 2007 and August 2009 it was accredited but that accreditation is no longer there. Then the rules changed and there was a requirement to meet National Occupational Standards and Core Curriculum and at that point, it seems the syllabus changed.
Out went the references to "basic energy sensing skills" and pretty much everything that actually referred to Reiki itself. And if you make a comparison of the two syllabi, you'll see quite a change.
In the National Database of Accredited Qualifications you'll still find a record for the international diploma which shows that it has a "certification end date" of 2012 which presumably means that after that date, no-one can list it as accredited. Curiously though, if you search the database for Reiki qualifications you only get pointed to the approved one, the UK qualification which doesn't mention the energy sensing skills and other nonsense stuff.
In the meantime, Skills for Health have asked ITEC to remove the accreditation statement for the international diploma from the website:
"The qualification does not have UK qualification status. The information on the ITEC website is incorrect and we (SfH) have contacted ITEC and ask them to remove this from their web site- ITEC have responded to the request from SfH that all QCA accreditation numbers be removed from the International Complementary Therapy Qualifications section on the ITEC website. " John Sheehan, Skills for Health.
It's in all our interests to look at the syllabi of these alternative medicine vocational qualifications and raise questions where the claims and the content are not evidence-based. Youngsters often look through these sites to find potential career paths and qualifications and if there are courses which teach beliefs in fictitious energies, non-existent healing skills, and impossible practices, they are being seriously mislead. And they will be seriously misleading their future clients as well.
With a bit of persistence, we can find out what is happening and even get something done about it.
Bob Lloyd has studied in four universities and has degrees in Biochemistry, Mathematics, and Computer Science. After a long career in publishing, teaching, and software engineering, he is now retired and lives in Andalucia in the South of Spain with his wife and rather ancient cat.
