For most people, start with TAFE NSW at Ultimo. It teaches the Certificate III in Animal Care Services (Pet Grooming), the nationally recognised grooming qualification (ACM30122 on training.gov.au), one day a week. With a Smart and Skilled place it costs $1,400 for a first qualification or $240 with a concession, and a trainee already working in a salon pays nothing.
The catch is the calendar. The next Ultimo intake starts on 2 February 2027, applications open on 8 November 2026, and TAFE NSW has no grooming intake in Sydney before then.
If you can take a month off work, look at Petbarn in Chatswood instead. It puts you in a working salon full time for 4 weeks with up to 2 other students, and the price includes the same Certificate III, though its first 2027 block does not start until July. The two city colleges, Greenwood Academy and ACIS, run the certificate over 52 weeks, and Greenwood also takes international students.
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 NSW at Ultimo
TAFE NSW, Ultimo. A mix of on-campus, virtual, online and workplace training, part time on Tuesdays: 7 hours of class plus at least 7 hours of your own study each week, from 2 February to 30 November 2027. Applications open on 8 November 2026, and Ultimo asks applicants to sit a literacy and numeracy screening test before it offers a place. Under Smart and Skilled the fee is $1,400 for a first qualification, $1,690 for a second, $240 with a concession and nothing for trainees or anyone fee-exempt. Without a subsidy it is $10,760, and materials are about $60. TAFE NSW excludes the course from Fee-Free TAFE.
TAFE NSW's assessment rules need access to an animal care facility, which at some campuses happens on a TAFE site. Ask Ultimo where the grooming practice happens and whose dogs you work on.
The city colleges
Greenwood Academy, Sydney CBD. A private registered training organisation (RTO 45916) at 175 Liverpool Street. Its Certificate III in Animal Care Services (Pet Grooming) is 52 weeks full time at 20 hours a week, including 12 weeks of scheduled breaks. Domestic students pay $7,000 tuition, a $300 enrolment fee and $1,000 for materials; international students on a student visa pay $14,000 tuition plus the same two fees. A placement in a grooming shop is listed as optional, so ask how much of the course is spent grooming dogs, and where. Intake dates are not on the course page.
Australian College of International Studies, North Sydney. A private registered training organisation (RTO 45515) at 213 Miller Street. It lists the Certificate III in Animal Care Services over 52 weeks for students aged 18 or over, and its electives include all 6 units the Pet Grooming version requires. It publishes no fee and does not say how the course is delivered or where the grooming practice happens, so ask, and confirm the certificate you finish with is the Pet Grooming one.
Petbarn in Chatswood
Petbarn Grooming Academy, Chatswood. 4 weeks full time, Monday to Friday, in the salon at Petbarn Chatswood, with 3 students per class. The theory is online through Heiniger Academy (RTO 40888), which issues the qualification. 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 Chatswood blocks are 19 July to 13 August and 11 October to 5 November, and a block needs 2 students to run.
South of the city, Elite Dog Grooming Academy in Shellharbour is a Heiniger training centre that also runs its own 2, 4 and 6 week courses. TAFE NSW has taught the grooming course at Yallah in the Illawarra, but no 2027 Yallah intake was published when we checked.
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, NSW registers the Certificate III as a traineeship with a 24-month nominal term (Training Services NSW), and a trainee's Smart and Skilled fee is $0 on the NSW Skills List. It is not open to school students part time. It is the bather route our course guide describes, with a qualification at the end of it.
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.
- Open Team Members and select Manage on the groomer.
- Open the Services tab and select Manage, or Assign Services on a new profile.
- 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.