Salon joins forces with college to give young people the training they deserve (From Redditch Advertiser)

Salon joins forces with college to give young people the training they deserve

5:50pm Wednesday 13th March 2013 in News

REDDITCH hair salon is joining forces with a college to launch a new apprenticeship scheme to make sure young people are getting the adequate training they need to succeed.

Rio Hair in Headless Cross feels there is a huge lack of skills in the hair dressing industry at the moment and one of the reasons is the current gulf between an NVQ qualified stylist and a 'salon-standard stylist.

The salon sees the best solution to this problem to be apprenticeship training courses, as opposed to full-time college courses, for hairdressing trainees, where the necessary salon skills and experience can be gained alongside basic hairdressing theory.

Salon spokesman Elliot Ferris said: “We hope to help more learners get the real skills that they need by passing on some of the knowledge we've acquired from our 20-plus years of experience as a hairdressing business.

“Rio already has six apprentices working out of the salon and this number is set to rise over the next two years.”

This year, Rio has partnered with the hairdressing division of Wolverhampton College to launch an apprenticeship only college inside its salon.

It will deliver Hairdressing NVQ levels 2 and 3 and Barbering NVQ levels 2 & 3.

Mr Ferris added: “The focus is to promote apprenticeship training and offer assistance to local salons as well to the learners alike.

“We have found that many salon owners aren't aware of the benefits of employing an apprentice, and the funding options that are available to help them get started. If anyone should need any information we will be happy to help.”

For more details, call the salon on 01527 404242.