Attendance and assessment
Flexible attendance
While we recommend students commit to attending for the year, we offer flexible attendance where students attend and pay for the Jing Fang Apprenticeship (JFA) by the day, by the term, or by the year. A discounted price is given to apprentices who pay for a year in advance.
Because attendance is flexible, assessment of apprentices is competency based rather than time based. Competencies are logged in an Apprentice Logbook which is triangulated between two supervisors or tutors and the apprentice. Completion of the logbook signals completion of the apprenticeship.
Upon completion of the logbook, apprentices are awarded a licentiate in Classical Chinese Herbalism (LicCCH).
Length of training
On average it takes around two years to complete the Apprentice Logbook, if you attend regularly. However, as the apprenticeship is competency based, it can take both a shorter or a longer time than that, depending on prior experience and individual circumstances.
If you would like to discuss your own situation, please contact us.
Assessments and coursework
To assess competency of each apprentice, apprentices are required to complete the Apprentice Logbook as well as compile a reference set of herbs, formulas and cases, to include your own research. This may be done in whatever way is useful to you, and will be monitored during your apprenticeship. Details of this are laid out in the Apprentice Logbook, and you can discuss this with your supervisors at any time.
Logbook competencies include evidence of attendance at three external days on dispensary (in person), and phytochemistry and pharmacology (online).
There are no other assessments.
External examiner
SCCH employs an external examiner to look at all the JFA assessment process, oversee apprentice work and give external input into the JFA programme. The External examiner is currently Neil Kingham, who is one of the first two graduates of the JFA programme, and qualified in 2016. Neil teaches acupuncture at the College of Naturopathic Medicine (CNM) in Bristol.
From the summer of 2023, EE reports will be available here.
Testimonials from patients, students and graduates.
Dr Feng, you have turned my world upside-down with this wonderful Jing Fang system… reading your case histories is inspirational.
Thank you for bringing Jing Fang into my life, it has done miracles for my health…I feel so privileged to have discovered this lineage.
Frances does a wonderful job of teaching Jing Fang to us in England, online and in person. It has transformed my herbal practice into being more effective, with quicker results, and being more curative.
It has been the most remarkable and fulfilling educational experience I have ever had, because the learning is done through observing real patients and seeing how Frances diagnoses and treats them. Every week I’m there, I learn something new whether it is about herbs or formulas or syndromes. And being at the clinic is always hugely interesting. Doing Frances’s course and learning the Jing Fang pattern diagnosis has changed the way I treat my own patients as an acupuncturist.
I have been very lucky to meet Frances Turner and study the Jing Fang tradition you have shared all over the world. It’s a truly wonderful medicine, which I absolutely love to continue learning and practicing. So many have benefited from these teachings.
It is such a privilege to be studying the Jing Fang Apprenticeship with Frances Turner, and I cannot wait to incorporate this incredible system into my practice to help patients.
Your depth of knowledge, as well as your warmth and willingness to share it, have made the last two years the most important and enjoyable of my career to date.
It has been the single most helpful thing I’ve done for my health – it’s been life changing.
It has been the most remarkable and fulfilling educational experience I have ever had.
Jing fang has given me a way of understanding herbal medicine that is both profound and effective. For that I am eternally grateful!
It has been rewarding and challenging to use this medicine. Every patient is a teacher!
The Jing Fang introductory lectures are extremely useful. The information is explained in a very clear and structured manner, with case studies that illustrate all the different formula patterns. The audio is a bonus. These lectures provide a very solid base that complement the practical side of the apprenticeship and help consolidate your learning.