Knowing how to massage can be a useful skill to ingratiate you with friends, family and colleagues but it can also be a pathway to a second income.

There are two types of courses offering massage:

Vocational Education College courses as part of broader programmes in complementary therapies and aimed primarily at school-leavers;

and stand-alone courses offered by private colleges to be done part-time by adults.

Derek O'Kelly of the Irish Academy of Training, a private college specialising in massage and beauty courses, says the motivation for the majority of the college's students is to use their learning as a possible second flexible income.

"The general feeling wouldn't be that this is going to change their life and they're going to drop everything once they have this course done, " he says. "A large percentage of our market are people who have full-time jobs or are fulltime housekeepers. They would be looking at it as a possible flexible second income with a view to maybe picking away at it for a year or two and seeing where it takes them. Some of them might have a three- to four-year plan in which they might see it as a career option after that time."

Kelly is realistic when students ask him about future earning potential. "There's a fair expense involved and a fair time input so I'd say to people when they ask will they be able to work full-time at this, 'probably not'."

Brenda McKenna of the Healing House, which offers massage and reflexology courses, says there are two main reasons students are drawn to massage courses.

"Firstly, the pressures and strains of modern life lead people to question their jobs and lifestyles. Some students see holistic therapies, with their emphases on all aspects of the person, as a more balanced way of life and an area they would like to move into. Secondly, a lot of students train in holistic massage for personal growth and not to change career."

Choosing which massage to do can be difficult, as there is a bewildering array. However, Kelly says nearly all massage is based on the Swedish massage strokes.

"Everyone should be working from the basis of the Swedish massage strokes, irrespective of what they do.

These came about when a Swedish doctor, Henrik Ling, became the first person in Europe to formulate and put some kind of structure on massage. He also introduced training programmes." Kelly recommends students ask about the foundation of the course they are interested in.

"All holistic professional training courses at the moment require a student to learn anatomy, physiology and professional conduct as core subjects, " adds McKenna.

"The skills involved in the different therapies, for example reflexology or Indian head massage, are specific to that therapy so a student cannot train in holistic massage and then offer Indian head massage as a treatment without the appropriate qualification. That would be unethical."

Accreditation is a grey area in Ireland at the moment although this is set to change over the coming years. "The Government has moved in the past three years to regulate the whole complementary medicine industry and massage will come under that umbrella, " says Kelly. "At the moment there are no licensing laws in this country so you're not answerable to anyone if you're practising complementary therapies. There is nothing that has to adhere to standards. A working group has been set up to advise the Minister for Health and Children on how to proceed. It looks like it will be industry self-regulation , , the way it is in Europe."

Holistic massage courses normally run for a year and include more than 150 hours of tuition, says McKenna.