If you can get a government-subsidised place, do the Certificate III at a TAFE. Box Hill and Kangan both teach the Certificate III in Animal Care Services (Pet Grooming), which is the nationally recognised grooming qualification (ACM30122 on training.gov.au). A subsidised place at Box Hill costs $3,845 in tuition for 2027, or $772 with a concession. Heiniger Academy, the training organisation behind the private academies below, says no government funding is available for its Certificate III, and Petbarn's package, the only private one with a published price, is $6,185. Check your Skills First eligibility before you compare.

A private academy makes sense when you want the hands-on part done quickly and can pay for it yourself. Petbarn in Brunswick, Dog Diversity in Seddon and KT's in Berwick each teach it as one full-time block of 4 to 5 weeks in a working salon. That suits someone who can take a month off work. A TAFE course takes 6 to 10 months, and the versions at 2 days a week leave room for a job.

Whichever you look at, ask how many dogs you will groom each week. It is the number our guide to choosing a grooming course says matters most.

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TAFE: Box Hill or Kangan

Box Hill Institute, Box Hill. Blended delivery, full time at 4 days a week for 6 months, with 2027 intakes starting on 8 February and 12 July. There is also a 9-month version at 2 days a week; ask Box Hill for its start date. Grooming students get work experience at Pets on Elgar, the institute's vet clinic and training centre on its Elgar campus, which is open to the public, so you work with real clients and their pets under supervision. For 2027 the tuition is $3,845 with a subsidised place, $772 with a concession or $13,270 at full fee, plus a $312 service and amenities fee and $552 for materials. You need Year 10 or equivalent and evidence of a current tetanus vaccination.

Kangan Institute, Broadmeadows. Face to face on the Broadmeadows campus plus online learning, in what Kangan describes as a simulated workplace. The next intake runs from 6 October 2026 to 30 July 2027, on Mondays and Tuesdays from 9:30am to 4pm. The fee table on the page shows indicative 2026 figures that change with the units you take, so ask for a quote for your own start.

Check that the course title ends in (Pet Grooming) before you pay. Melbourne Polytechnic, at Epping and Fairfield, and The Gordon, at Werribee, teach the Certificate III in Animal Care Services without the grooming units. Greenwood Academy has a Docklands campus, but its grooming course runs in Sydney only.

Private academies

Heiniger Academy (RTO 40888) issues the Certificate III for all of these. You do its theory online, and the academy teaches the practical.

Petbarn Grooming Academy, Brunswick. 4 weeks full time, Monday to Friday, in the salon at Petbarn Brunswick, with 3 students per class. The package with the Certificate III is $6,185 on Heiniger's page. A shorter package at $4,900 gives a Statement of Attainment for the 5 grooming units instead, which counts towards the full certificate later. Petbarn's own page also shows a $7,000 figure, so confirm the price when you enquire. 2026 is fully booked. The 2027 Brunswick blocks are 1 to 26 February, 5 to 30 July and 6 September to 1 October, and a block needs 2 students to run.

Dog Diversity, Seddon. A private grooming school in the inner west, running since 2000. Its Pet Stylist course is an industry certification rather than the national qualification: 4 weeks online, 4 weeks full time in the salon, then 4 more weeks online, in classes of 2 to 4. Dog Diversity says students work on about 35 dogs in the salon weeks, building up to full grooms by the last week. For the Certificate III it runs a 23-day practical block alongside Heiniger's theory, and its Groomers Assistant course, 10 days on campus plus 8 weeks online, is aimed at an entry-level salon job. Fees are in a course guide it emails rather than on the site, and it offers no concessions or government funding. The remaining 2026 blocks are full, and the first 2027 block runs 1 to 26 February.

KT's Dog & Cat Grooming Academy, Berwick. A private academy in Melbourne's south-east. Its Practical Pet Stylist Course is 4 weeks and a day, Monday to Friday from 9:30am to 4:30pm, in an operational salon where each student grooms dogs one on one. Paired with Heiniger's online component it leads to the Certificate III; on its own it ends with KT's participation certificate. The next course runs from 19 October to 17 November 2026. Fees are not published.

Further out, Heiniger lists training centres in Geelong, at the International Grooming Academy, and at Learmonth near Ballarat, at Cute as a Button Dog Grooming.

Online, or in the salon where you work

Heiniger Academy and Skills Generation both deliver the grooming Certificate III online anywhere in Australia, and both still need real dogs for the practical. Heiniger's theory is $2,225 with no funding available and 12 months to finish. If you are new to grooming, you do the practical at one of its training centres, whose fees Heiniger puts at $5,000 to $12,000; if you already work in a salon, you can be assessed there. Skills Generation charges $5,000 for the full course, allows up to 2 years, and expects you to find an animal care workplace for the practical assessments, which it says most students finish within 60 hours.

If a salon will employ you first, Victoria lists the Certificate III as a traineeship, for up to 24 months full time or 48 months part time at a minimum of 13 hours a week (VRQA). It is the bather route our course guide describes, with a qualification at the end of it. Kangan lists a traineeship intake for pet grooming, but it was not open when we checked.

After the course

How much dog groomers make in Australia sets out the pay on each path, from an employed wage to owning a salon, so you can weigh the course fee against the work. If you plan to work for yourself, running a dog grooming business from home covers the council rules first.

Add a newly qualified groomer's services

A new team member starts with no services on their profile, and the booking form reads that list, so add the grooms they are signed off for before their first booking.

1. Open Team Members and select Manage on the groomer.
2. Open the Services tab and select Manage, or Assign Services on a new profile.
3. Under Manage Services, choose the services they can do, then select Save Changes.

Before you enrol: every fee, date and course detail here was checked on the provider's own page on 27 September 2026, and they change every year. Confirm them with the provider, and check any nationally recognised course code on training.gov.au.