A new profession is born, the qualified cosmetic informant
Registrations are underway to train new professionals at UniFerrara
A dynamic course, which combines lectures with practical exercises; heterogeneous for being open to an audience with different educational backgrounds; unique, the first of its kind; eclectic, due to the vastness of topics covered ranging from cultural, social, economic, health and well-being aspects but also trends and lifestyles; innovative, due to the attention paid to new research offers and the requests of the 
consumer and market; qualification, for the issue at the end of the course of a certificate attesting the training achieved. These are some of the characteristics of the Course for Qualified Cosmetic Informer (ICQ), promoted by the Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology of the University of Ferrara, in collaboration with Cosmetica Italia.
A professional training course that arises from the need to fill a professional gap, in which the absence of a reference figure in the field of consumer advice clearly emerges, in a dynamic, complex and very driving sector for the economy, such as that of cosmetics and beauty. The latter understood in its broadest sense of the term: external, aimed at keeping the body in shape and in full well-being, and internal, aimed at offering remedies and treatments for specific problems, allowing you to maintain the right psycho-physical balance also through the use of the most correct cosmetics, apparently non-therapeutic products.
The educational path that blends and integrates topics from the socio-cultural, scientific, marketing and communication areas into theoretical and practical lessons, aims to train competent operators capable of disseminating the culture of cosmetics in an accurate and accredited manner, with a specialization in the commercial and information for the scientific presentation of international cosmetic production. "The training offer - declares Dr. Marisa Ascioti, educational director of the ICQ Course and creator of the related program - offers an experience of transversal knowledge of cosmetics and beauty between human and biological sciences, a journey into the cosmetic universe and its multiple connections with the interiority of the individual, without neglecting marketing, sales and communication techniques as required today by the market and the world of work. The choice of disciplines has therefore been designed to allow an approach with a complete vision, rich in content and validated, in step with the constant evolution of the sector. In fact, today more than ever, cosmetics has a central role in the individual health project and the presence of qualified professionals able to provide reliable information, timely advice and guide towards correct choices, with the competence that the contemporary consumer - informed , demanding, often even confused by fake news – look, they are more than ever needed and requested at all levels”.
A training, that of the ICQ, which was still lacking in the Italian professional panorama and which is easily employed in various occupational fields according to the skills acquired. Or in B2B, within companies, as a beauty consultant as a qualified promoter or as product reps – alter ego of the drug sales rep – at the medical profession, dermatologists, paediatricians, aesthetic doctors, but also in companies and marketing offices or as beauty trainers, and in the B2C in pharmacies, perfumeries, herbal medicine, single-brand stores, e-commerce as department managers at all channels of physical and digital sales, capable of relating to people according to the new dictates of H2H (Human to Human) marketing.
So: you are a freshly graduated high school student and you are looking for a 'nice' profession, you are a professional looking for a course that qualifies your job or that allows you to broaden your employment horizons and your desire for accredited knowledge in the world of cosmetics? ICQ is for you. Registration is open until 12 October 2019, while classroom and laboratory lessons will begin at the University of Ferrara – since 1979 the scientific reference center for Cosmetology in Europe – on Monday 21 October 2019. 160 hours of 'full' lessons -immersion', for 4 weeks, scheduled between October 2019 and April 2020.
"We decided to promote ICQ several years ago - explains Stefano Manfredini, Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Toxicology at the University of Ferrara and Director of the training course for Qualified Cosmetic Representatives - because it represents to date the only university initiative that trains this profile. Useful both for young people just out of high school who need guidance in the sector, and for adults who already carry out a profession and intend to update themselves or offer themselves a new possibility of a new professional figure that did not exist until about ten years ago. This course, which can be accessed from the age at which university studies can be accessed, allows the participant to explore the area of competence of the cosmetic product, all areas of the sector albeit through a short path, accompanied by teachers who are both from the academic world and from the company, but at a university level to give substance and stand out in the myriad of training courses offered today by the market".
"To date - says Dr. Ascioti - out of about 350 informants present in the area, almost all of them have found employment in national and multinational companies, pharmacies, international chains of top quality perfumeries and primary importance in the sector, even before completing the path formative".
ICQ also follows its students even post-training, thanks to the establishment of the ICQ Association (AIICQ). "It was founded - concludes the doctor - with the aim of providing constant updates to alumni regarding the innovations in the cosmetic field and providing continuous training with the intention of structuring in the near future, also for the Qualified Cosmetic Representative , paths that allow them to better enhance their professionalism, on a par with the CMEs already systematized for other professions in the Health sector".
Note: Ministerial Decree November 11, 2011 Official Gazette February 22, 2012, n. 44 "Equivalence of diplomas of schools directed to special purposes": Cosmetologist technician equated to L-29 Pharmaceutical sciences and technologies. The degrees belonging to the Class L-29are suitable to carry out the activity of ISF provided that the exams in pharmacology, pathology, toxicology, pharmaceutical and toxicological chemistry, pharmaceutical technology and legislation have been passed. Those who want to obtain this qualification must enroll in a university school for technicians specialized in cosmetology. The school has a duration of three years and is not susceptible to abbreviations. Each year of the course includes four hundred hours of teaching and guided practical activities (professional training), the latter for at least 50% of the foreseen hours.
