Does your beauty school need provincial registration? A guide for Canada
In Canada, training is a provincial matter, and every province draws the line between a short course and a regulated career program in its own place. Here is where Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia draw it, summarised from their own pages — and what a booking and records system can and cannot do for a school on either side of that line.
Why the question comes before the software
Most beauty educators start with a one-day class and grow into multi-week programs without noticing the moment they crossed into regulated territory. In several provinces that moment is defined by hours of instruction and the fee charged; in Ontario, the Superintendent of Career Colleges can issue compliance notices and orders to an institution operating without the registration it needs.
This page is a map, not legal advice. Each province publishes its own rules and they change; the official page for each one is listed at the foot of this page with the day we read it. If your program sits near a threshold, the province's own pre-screening or the regulator is the place to ask.
Where four provinces draw the line
As each province states it on its own website, read on 10 November 2026.
Ontario: the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005
Career colleges offering vocational programs are registered and overseen by the Superintendent of Career Colleges, starting with pre-screening through the PARIS system. The exemptions page lists programs under 40 hours, programs charging less than $2,000, and programs for people already employed in that vocation who are updating their skills, among others.
British Columbia: the Private Training Act
The regulator certifies private institutions offering a career training program, which it defines as a career-related program with tuition of $4,000 or more and 40 or more hours of instruction. The Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills runs it.
Alberta: the Private Vocational Training Act
Career training programs offered by private colleges need a licence unless an exemption applies. The exemptions include programs with a tuition fee under $1,000, training for personal interest or to update existing skills, and training a professional association gives its own members.
Nova Scotia: the Cosmetology Act
Here the beauty trade itself is regulated. Nobody may operate a school of cosmetology without a permit under the Act, and instruction in a school is given by holders of a master cosmetologist instructor licence. The Act's cosmetology covers hair care, eyelash application, non-permanent make-up, nail care, hair removal and skin care.
The rest of the country
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and the territories each have their own private vocational or career college legislation, and their own thresholds. We have not summarised them here because we have not read each one closely enough to state its numbers; the provincial ministry responsible for post-secondary education is where to start.
Hairstyling adds a second layer in several provinces, because it is a compulsory trade there: a certificate from a private hair course does not, on its own, let a graduate work as a hairstylist in Ontario or Alberta, where the province's trade certification is required. That has its own guide.
Québec is not covered on this page and Slotora's academy is not offered there: the product is in English, and Québec's rules on language in commerce come first.
Questions about registering a beauty school
My lash course is two days and costs $900. Does it need registering in Ontario?
Ontario's exemptions page lists programs under 40 hours and programs charging less than $2,000 as exempt, so a course like that sits on the exempt side of both lines as the page states them. The ministry's pre-screening is the way to get a firm answer for your program.
Does a short course in British Columbia need the regulator's certificate?
B.C.'s regulator defines a career training program as one with tuition of $4,000 or more and 40 or more hours of instruction. A course below either figure is outside that definition as it is written; check the regulator's own page for the current wording.
Are students in an exempt program protected if the school closes?
Ontario's page says students in exempt institutions or programs are not protected by the Act. Its Training Completion Assurance Fund covers students of registered colleges, which pay premiums into it.
Can I show the province my attendance records from Slotora?
You can export them and print the registers. Whether the format satisfies a particular regulator's record rules is the regulator's call, and we have not had one confirm it.
Does Slotora check whether my program needs registering?
No. The academy sign-up asks for your trade and country, not your hours or fees, and nothing in the product judges whether a program falls under a provincial act.
What the academy keeps that a regulator may ask about
Registered or not, a school is asked who attended, what they paid and what they were given. These are the records Slotora's academy keeps, as built today.
A register per dated day
Attendance is marked against each held session, so a twelve-day program has twelve registers rather than one list, and a cancelled day keeps its date with the marks already made.
Fees, deposits and refunds
Every payment and refund you record carries its amount, date and method, in Canadian dollars, and the whole ledger exports as a CSV for your accountant.
Certificates with serials
Each certificate takes the next serial in your academy's own sequence, and a withdrawn one is recorded as withdrawn, so the list of what you issued is complete.
A log of who did what
Role changes, exports, deletions, certificate issues and money actions are written to the academy's own log with the person and the time.
What Slotora does not do for a registered school
If your programs are registered, or about to be, these are the parts you will still do elsewhere.
- It files nothing with the province
- Slotora is not connected to PARIS or to any provincial regulator's system. Applications, renewals and program approvals stay in the province's own process.
- No student contract or refund policy template
- Whatever your province asks of an enrolment contract or a refund policy, the academy only records the terms a student accepted on your page, in your words, as they stood that day. It does not draft them or check them against any act.
- A certificate here is not a provincial credential
- Your academy's certificate attests what your academy says. It is not a diploma issued under a provincial act, and the check page does not say otherwise.
- Attendance decides the certificate, unless you overrule it
- The bulk issue reads the register. It does not hold exam marks or a practical pass, which a regulated program usually needs on file.
The provinces' own pages
Every provincial figure above comes from one of these, on the day shown. Rules change; read the current page before you rely on a number.
- Government of Ontario — Career colleges — https://www.ontario.ca/page/private-career-colleges · read on
- Government of Ontario — Exemptions from registration for career colleges — https://www.ontario.ca/page/exemptions-registration-career-colleges · read on
- Government of Ontario — Register a career college in Ontario — https://www.ontario.ca/page/register-career-college-ontario · read on
- Government of British Columbia — Private Training Institutions — https://www.privatetraininginstitutions.gov.bc.ca/home · read on
- Government of Alberta — Career training licence requirements — https://www.alberta.ca/career-training-licence-requirements · read on
- Nova Scotia Legislature — Cosmetology Act (2012, c. 39), sections 2, 3, 27 and 30 — https://www.nslegislature.ca/sites/default/files/legc/statutes/cosmetology.pdf · read on
Keep the records a school is asked for
Whichever side of the line your programs fall, the register, the ledger and the certificate list live in one place. Open the academy and enter the group you are teaching now.