We talk a lot about yoga teacher training and the Yoga Alliance (YA) Registered Yoga School (RYS) standards and this week we’ve seen some announcements coming out of YA.
First, they announced a new “help center” which actually means you can’t call anymore. But you can talk to their chat robot or make an appointment to get help (uuugh). In many of our videos we say the one thing Yoga Alliance does well is answer the phone when you call. Not any more!
I have Yoga Alliance in my phone contacts but the number is basically useless now, it’s just a recorded message telling you to book an appointment or search online.
We were disappointed to hear YA took that service away and tried to frame it as an improvement!
Obstacles with the RYS Application
Learn how we overcame our obstacles in completing the RYS application in this video:
New CommUnity Forum
The next email I received from YA was that they’re updating their CommUnity forum. This forum is only for Yoga Alliance registered members.
You can actually advertise your classes and offerings there, keeping in mind that everyone in the forum is already at least a 200 Hour Yoga Teacher.
Yoga Alliance is updating the platform and it will temporarily close on May 13 but it’s probably not going to affect you, so not a big deal.
Next Announcement – New RYS Application?
What these announcements say to us is that the new platform for the RYS application is coming next.
Since the RYS online training provisions (because of COVID) only go till the end of 2023, and many schools are already planning for 2024, Yoga Alliance is falling behind if they don’t make the announcement soon. They haven’t let people know what is allowed in terms of training now that we’ve all been through COVID and everything that changed because of it.
YA knows their website and application process, how to put this delicately, well, it sucks.
Working to register a Yoga School with YA is a practice in mindfulness because YA has made so many changes that made the process worse.
YA Website Changing Again
We’re talking about this now because Yoga Alliance will be changing the RYS application again. We think YA will make the announcement before the end of May.
The core competencies will likely be the same but we’ve heard from our YA account manager that new changes are coming to:
- the application format and process,
- the Lead Trainer requirements,
- the synchronous and asynchronous requirements for the 200 Hours of training.
If you already have an RYS, you’ll need to up-level by whatever deadline they give (we don’t know the deadline, but we guess it will be in 2024).
But if you don’t have an RYS yet, you will likely see a new application process.
You Don’t Have to Reinvent the Wheel
For us, this means another round of updating our RYS application so we can license out the Ambassador Yoga 200 Hour Training. If you already use our training, you don’t have to worry about anything, we’ve got you covered.
We take care of all the Yoga Alliance RYS requirements for your syllabus when you work with us. The idea is, you use the work we’ve already done and then you don’t have to reinvent the wheel for your training.
But if you don’t have an RYS yet, and you’ve started writing an RYS application, brace yourself for a change. Make sure you stay up to date on YA announcements (yes, we’ll let you know in this newsletter too!) because you don’t want to continue working on an application format that YA no longer accepts.
Why Bother with Yoga Alliance?
It may seem like we’re coming down hard on Yoga Alliance in this email, so much so that you wonder why we bother being part of it! The truth is, we look at Yoga Alliance as a business decision. Having an RYS helps you get more students than not having one. It’s a business investment that pays off. We’re into those kinds of investments.
It’s kind of like how we feel about social media, we don’t love it but it helps to have a presence. But you have to invest a lot of work or pay someone to do it for you.
The Ambassador Yoga Training saves you from doing the work we have already done. Using the program, you can drop all the work for your RYS approval and jump to opening registration for your training as soon as next week. You can get the details here.