By T Mursell
Style a future for yourself in a slick, chic and most importantly profitable industry- by taking your first steps (or cuts...) into a career in hairdressing!
What's it about?
As a Hairdressing apprentice, you'll work as a salon junior, assisting senior staff while training as a junior stylist. Duties are likely to include booking appointments, shampooing, conditioning, drying and styling hair, and mixing and applying hair colouring.
You'll have a mentor who helps you progress with your training and develops a learning plan to meet your needs. Your training will bring you up to the standards that employers need you to be at to do the job well, whilst your mentor will be able to help you focus on the areas where more work is needed.
Who's it for?
As an apprentice, you'll discover how busy the job is and your work load will mean you'll be rushed off your feet most of the time. You'll need to look smart, with a trendy looking haircut of your own if you want to impress- how often do you find your hair being cut my someone who looks like their mums put a bowl around their head and hacked away!
Good communication plays a role, too - you'll need to understand exactly what your customer wants in order to make them happy. You need to be sensitive to peoples wishes and respects while also maintaining that creative skill and flair that all good hairdressers have.
Keeping up to date with fashion and style is essential too! If a client comes in asking for Victoria Beckham's latest trim, you don't want to be giving them one of VB earlier versions!
What do I get out of it?
You'll study hairdressing topics such as hair and skin testing, the effects of chemicals on hair and skin, and the principles of hair colour selection - there's also the option to learn about promoting products, perming, or relaxing different types of hair.
Those apprentices who take the advanced level apprenticeship, well they take their learning a step further by developing their cutting and colouring skills so they can carry out all the latest fashion techniques - and maybe even determine the fashion looks of the future. A starting salary between £10k-£16k can be expected once qualified.
The framework of this apprenticeship includes the following: a work based qualification that is designed to ensure the apprentice is job ready, such as an NVQ or SVQ at either Level 2 or 3 ; Key skills qualifications such as communication and maths.
Also, many people in the health and beauty industry go on to set up their own businesses, and an Apprenticeship is a great way to gain the knowledge, skills and experience you'll need to do this.
