DAY ONE: THE YOUTH OF TODAY (PART 2) #salonsmart17
Closing Salon Smart 2017’s Sunday afternoon sessions was the live panel debating the youth of today, featuring Ken West, Headmasters’ Jon Sanders; the Gallery’s Lorenzo Colangelo; salon owner and NHF ambassador, Wendy Cummins; hairdressing icon and educator, Lee Stafford; salon owner Ken Picton and publicity director for Salon Success, Zoe Vears. Wendy, who has been involved in the creation of the new Trailblazer Apprentices that come into force from May, explained how the new framework would see apprentices face a six hour test at the end – in effect, running their own column to illustrate they were ‘salon ready’.
Lorenzo Colangelo believes there is too much focus on NMW, and we should be looking at the financial value of assistants – his own research into their value at the Gallery illustrated that a huge 43 per cent of revenue was facilitated by assistants.
However, enticing 16 year olds to leave school, when those schools are financially incentivised to keep them on, is a battle, although Ken Picton admitted he’d been battling schools for 15 years. He said: “I’m happy to take 18, 19, or 20 year olds on to be apprentices. I’ll find the budget for them. I’m not sure that 16 year olds are necessarily ready for the salon…”
Jon Sanders admitted he felt that career advisers were still steering bright children who might be interested in hairdressing as a career in a different, more academic direction. He pointed to the success of the company’s youngest ever franchisee, at 19 – six years on, she’s running one of the most successful Headmasters franchises.
Lee Stafford urged the industry to look at the standard of those doing the training: “We’ve got to create Michelin star trainers before we get Michelin star trainees.” Zoe Vears returned to the question of career advisors, who needed to see how hairdressing offers a career with incredible opportunities, not simply a job. “We need to change their mindset,” she urged.