The line Qualifications
Where Queensland’s licence asks for a qualification, it names a unit, not a beauty therapy diploma.
Two qualifications carry the services on this site: SHB40121 Certificate IV in Beauty Therapy and SHB30321 Certificate III in Nail Technology, each with a packaging rule and a list of units. Queensland's licence for higher risk services requires a qualification, and what it names is a unit, HLTINF005, which sits inside the Certificate IV as one of two options. Where a state asks for no qualification at all, that is stated too.
General information about the law for beauty businesses in each state, not legal or health advice. Your council or state health department has the final word.
NSW Health counts nail work where a treatment involves skin penetration, and its notification form lists manicures and pedicures among the procedures businesses notify.
What the register holds
Two qualifications carry most of the work on this site, and the national training register keeps their packaging rules in public: SHB40121 Certificate IV in Beauty Therapy and SHB30321 Certificate III in Nail Technology.
| Qualification | Units, as recorded | The infection control unit | What it says it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| SHB40121 Certificate IV in Beauty Therapy, Release 1 | Packaging Rules: 23 units are to be completed: 18 core and 5 elective, with 1 elective from Group A: Infection control, at least 2 from Group B, and up to 2 from elsewhere in the training package or another current one. | Group A offers two units: HLTINF005 Maintain infection prevention for skin penetration treatments, or SHBBINF002 Maintain infection control standards. | The role of a beauty therapist providing lash and brow services, nail services, make-up, massage and waxing. |
| SHB30321 Certificate III in Nail Technology, Release 1 | Packaging Rules: 15 units are to be completed: 10 core and 5 elective, with 1 elective from Group A: Infection control, at least 2 from Group B, and up to 2 from elsewhere. | The same two units, HLTINF005 or SHBBINF002. | The role of a nail technician providing manicure and pedicare services, nail art and acrylic and gel nail enhancements. |
Both carry the same two notes about what they are not. Neither has entry requirements. And the register records, for each of them, that no occupational certification, licensing or specific legislative requirements apply at the time of publication.
Read that second note with the rest of this page and it is not a contradiction: the qualification is not what a licence asks for. On the one Australian licence this site can point to that names a qualification, the thing it names is a unit, and the unit is one of the two above.
The register also says what the qualifications assume around them: the skills in each are to be applied in accordance with Commonwealth, state and territory legislation, industry codes of practice and Australian standards. Some units in the packaging rules carry an asterisk, meaning they have one or more prerequisite units, which the register directs a reader to the individual unit for.
The units behind the services
The register's units are how the qualifications list the services, and the codes are worth reading as a map of the work. From the Certificate IV's core units, this site draws the codes under five services on its line.
- SHBBHRS010 Provide waxing services, a core unit of the Certificate IV.
- SHBBFAS004 Provide lash and brow services, a core unit of the Certificate IV.
- SHBBMUP009 Design and apply make-up, a core unit of the Certificate IV.
- SHBBNLS007 Provide manicure and pedicare services, a core unit of both qualifications.
- SHBBSKS006 Pierce ear lobes, recorded on its own with Release 1, superseding SHBBSKS001 and not equivalent to it.
The ear-lobe unit is the smallest window into how the register writes. It applies to beauticians and retail beauty consultants working in beauty salons and retail cosmetic outlets, making routine service decisions inside standard routines and procedures and responsible for delivering the service within skin penetration guidelines. It too records that no occupational certification, licensing or specific legislative requirements apply to it at the time of publication, and that its skills are to be applied in accordance with Commonwealth, state and territory legislation, industry codes of practice and Australian standards.
The Certificate IV's electives list one more service this site draws: SHBBMUP008 Apply eyelash extensions, an elective option in Group B. The Certificate III's package reaches further into nails than the line does, with SHBBNLS010 Apply nail art, SHBBNLS009 Apply acrylic nail enhancements, SHBBNLS011 Use electric file equipment for nail services and SHBBNLS012 Apply advanced nail art among its units.
The one licence that names a unit
Queensland is the state where the register and the licence meet. Under its personal appearance services law, a person must not personally provide a higher risk service unless they hold an infection control qualification, and a business proprietor must ensure an operator they engage holds one too; the maximum penalties are 200 penalty units for the person and 500 for the proprietor.
The definition of that qualification is where the two systems join. By regulation, the infection control competency standard is attainment of the competency called HLTINF005, Maintain infection prevention for skin penetration treatments, approved by the Australian Industry and Skills Committee, and the competency is taken to include its former titles, HLTIN2A, HLTIN402B and HLTIN402C.
Trace one service through both systems and the shape becomes clear. Cosmetic tattooing is, in Queensland, tattooing: Queensland Health's categorisation table records that cosmetic tattooing and semi-permanent make-up fall inside the Act's definition of tattooing, and tattooing is a higher risk personal appearance service, so the licence is required. The licence then asks its holder for HLTINF005, and HLTINF005 is one of the two options in Group A of the Certificate IV's packaging rules.
The worked example cuts both ways. A person who holds SHB40121 and chose SHBBINF002 as their infection control unit holds the qualification but not the unit Queensland's rule names; a person who holds HLTINF005 alone holds the unit the rule names.
Where a council weighs competence instead
Two other states touch the question from opposite sides. Tasmania's Act does not name a course or a unit: in determining an application for a licence, the council is to consider whether the applicant is competent to undertake the activity in accordance with any relevant guidelines, and the protection of public health.
Victoria's registration, by contrast, is not a skills check at all. Its own departmental page says its regulations do not judge how good a service is, or how skilled or qualified the people giving it are. A Victorian salon's registration therefore says nothing about what its staff have studied, and a client reading the notice at the door should read it that way.
Put the three together and the honest summary is narrow. Queensland's licence names a qualification, and what it names is a unit; one council weighs competence against guidelines; one registration scheme says qualifications are not its business. For the other states and territories, nothing on this page states a link between a qualification and a licence.