Short courses & CPD
Short courses for practitioners and students
短期课程与进修
CPD at SCMAT UK
Keep the practical skills sharp
Once you are in practice, the difficulty is rarely knowing what to do — it is maintaining the quality of your technique and the sharpness of your clinical reasoning when you are working alone, seeing the same kinds of presentation week after week. That is what these courses are for.
Every practical course is capped at a small group so that each participant gets hands-on feedback rather than watching a demonstration from the back of a room. Where a course is delivered online, it is built around discussion and worked cases rather than a lecture recording, because a recording would not be worth your time or your money.
We are deliberately honest about what a certificate means. Where a course is CPD, you receive a certificate of attendance stating the contact hours. We do not claim professional body accreditation for any course unless it is stated explicitly on that course’s page.
Catalogue
Courses currently offered
- CPDOne day · On campus, practical
Herb identification workshop
For: Practising herbalists, dispensers, students and retailers
A hands-on day with unlabelled samples: identifying common substances by appearance, texture and smell, and recognising the substitutions and adulterations that matter clinically.
What the course covers
- Systematic identification of the core materia medica by sensory examination
- Recognising common substitutions — what is sold as what, and how to tell
- Judging quality: colour, aroma, moisture, presence of filler
- Interpreting a supplier's certificate of analysis and knowing when to distrust it
- Handling, storage and pest control in a dispensary
[DATE][LOCATION]Enquire for fees - CPDOne day · On campus, practical, small groups
Refining needling technique
For: Qualified acupuncturists
A practical day on insertion angle and depth, deqi, needle selection and the handling of difficult points, with hands-on feedback in deliberately small groups.
What the course covers
- Needle selection: gauge, length and tip, and why the choice matters
- Insertion technique for points that are difficult to reach or awkwardly angled
- Obtaining and recognising deqi, and what to do when it does not arrive
- Depth, direction and the safety considerations at anatomically risky points
- Managing the anxious patient, needle shock, and adverse events
[DATE][LOCATION]Enquire for fees - CPDTwo days · On campus, practical
Paediatric Tui Na
For: Qualified practitioners and manual therapists
The distinct technique vocabulary, lighter pressures and different clinical reasoning used with infants and young children, taught within clear scope-of-practice limits.
What the course covers
- How paediatric treatment differs: pressure, pace and duration
- The paediatric point repertoire and the techniques particular to it
- Common presentations parents bring, and what is appropriate to treat
- Recognising when a child must be referred to a doctor, without delay
- Consent, safeguarding, and working with parents present
[DATE][LOCATION]Enquire for fees - CPDOne day · On campus, practical
Moxibustion & cupping
For: Acupuncturists and manual therapists
A practical introduction to moxibustion and cupping as adjuncts to acupuncture: technique, indications in the tradition's terms, and the safety controls each requires.
What the course covers
- Types of moxa and their appropriate uses
- Direct, indirect and warming techniques, and their relative risk
- Cupping: fixed, sliding and flash techniques
- Burns, blisters and marking: prevention, consent and aftercare advice
- Ventilation, fire safety and smoke management in a clinic setting
[DATE][LOCATION]Enquire for fees - CPDTwo evenings · On campus or online
Pulse and tongue diagnosis: a refresher
For: Practising practitioners returning to study
A refresher for practitioners who trained some time ago and want to rebuild consistency in tongue and pulse observation, with supervised practice and calibration against other practitioners.
What the course covers
- Rebuilding a repeatable tongue observation routine
- The three positions and nine regions at the pulse, revisited
- Calibrating your findings against other practitioners in the room
- Common disagreements between practitioners and what they mean
- Recording observations so they remain useful in the case notes
[DATE][LOCATION]Enquire for fees - One day · On campus or online, workshop
Setting up in practice: the business day
For: Recently qualified practitioners
A practical day on the non-clinical side of practice: premises, insurance, record-keeping, pricing your own time, marketing within advertising rules, and handling complaints.
What the course covers
- Premises: renting a room, sharing a clinic, or working from home
- Insurance, professional body membership and what each actually covers
- Record-keeping, consent and data protection in a small practice
- Pricing your own time — and the trap of underpricing
- Advertising rules for health practitioners: what you may and may not claim
- Handling a complaint or an adverse event as a sole practitioner
[DATE][LOCATION]Enquire for fees - CPDOne day · Online, workshop
Evidence literacy for Chinese medicine practitioners
For: Practitioners, students and educators
How to read a research paper, what a systematic review does and does not tell you, and how to talk to patients and sceptical colleagues about the evidence for what you do.
What the course covers
- Anatomy of a clinical trial: what the sections mean
- Bias, blinding and why acupuncture trials are unusually difficult to design
- Reading a systematic review and understanding heterogeneity
- What 'the evidence is mixed' actually means in practice
- Explaining uncertainty to patients without undermining their confidence in you
[DATE][LOCATION]Enquire for fees - Ten weekly evenings · Online, live
Chinese language for the clinic
For: Students and practitioners
An introduction to the Chinese terminology of the discipline: the characters and pinyin behind the terms you already use, and how understanding them sharpens clinical reasoning.
What the course covers
- Pronunciation and pinyin for classical medical terms
- Key characters: qi, blood, yin, yang, the organ names, the six qi
- Reading herb names in Chinese and what the names describe
- How translation has flattened meaning, with worked examples
- Using the terminology accurately in writing and teaching
[DATE][LOCATION]Enquire for fees
Dates and fees
Course dates, venues and fees are shown as placeholders until the college’s short course calendar is confirmed. Confirmed dates appear on the events page. To receive the fee schedule and the next available dates for a specific course, please contact the college office.
How it works
Booking a short course
Step 1
Choose your course
Read the catalogue above. If you are unsure whether a course is pitched at the right level for you, ask us — we would rather advise you honestly than take a booking for the wrong course.Step 2
Enquire
Send an enquiry through the contact form or email the college office, naming the course and your preferred dates.Step 3
We confirm availability and fee
We reply with the confirmed date, venue, fee and what is included, along with payment options and any member rate that applies to you.Step 4
Confirm your place
Your place is held once payment or a deposit is received. Joining instructions, travel information and anything you need to bring are sent in advance.
Compare
Short courses at a glance
| Course | For | Duration | Format | CPD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herb identification workshop | Practising herbalists, dispensers, students and retailers | One day | On campus, practical | Certificate issued |
| Refining needling technique | Qualified acupuncturists | One day | On campus, practical, small groups | Certificate issued |
| Paediatric Tui Na | Qualified practitioners and manual therapists | Two days | On campus, practical | Certificate issued |
| Moxibustion & cupping | Acupuncturists and manual therapists | One day | On campus, practical | Certificate issued |
| Pulse and tongue diagnosis: a refresher | Practising practitioners returning to study | Two evenings | On campus or online | Certificate issued |
| Setting up in practice: the business day | Recently qualified practitioners | One day | On campus or online, workshop | No certificate |
| Evidence literacy for Chinese medicine practitioners | Practitioners, students and educators | One day | Online, workshop | Certificate issued |
| Chinese language for the clinic | Students and practitioners | Ten weekly evenings | Online, live | No certificate |
Contact hours for each course are pending confirmation and will be stated on the certificate and on this page.
Questions
Short courses: frequently asked questions
Who are the short courses for?
Most are for qualified practitioners and are designed as CPD. A few — the practice setup day and the Chinese language course — are open to students and to practitioners at any stage. Each course listing states its intended audience, and we are happy to advise if you are unsure whether a course is pitched at the right level for you.
How much do short courses cost?
Fees are confirmed on enquiry. We publish fee schedules on request rather than in a table so that we can explain what is included — teaching, materials, and any certificate — and confirm whether a member rate applies to you. Please contact the college office for the current schedule.
Do I get a CPD certificate?
Where a course is marked as CPD, a certificate of attendance is issued stating the course title, date and contact hours. Whether a given professional body accepts it toward your CPD requirement is a matter for that body, and we recommend checking with them directly. The college does not claim that any course is accredited by a professional body unless it is stated explicitly on the course page.
Can I book online?
Online booking is not yet available. At present, places are reserved by enquiry through the contact form or by email, and we confirm your place and send joining instructions in reply. This website is served as a static site, so there is no booking system connected to it yet.
What is your cancellation policy for short courses?
The full cancellation and refund terms for short courses are set out in the college's terms and conditions. In outline, cancellations made more than the stated notice period before the course date are refunded less any deposit; later cancellations may be transferred to a future date at the college's discretion. Exact notice periods are pending confirmation and are marked as placeholders in the terms.
Can you run a short course for our organisation?
Yes. Several of these courses, and the Chinese Health Literacy programme, can be delivered in-house for workplace cohorts. Please see corporate and workplace wellbeing, or contact us to discuss numbers and scheduling.
Enquire about a short course
Tell us which course you are interested in and we will send the fee schedule and the next available dates.
Looking for a full qualification instead?
Our taught programmes run from one-year certificates to three-year professional diplomas with supervised clinical practice.