I was that mature student! [emoji5]
I pretty much took the path you mentioned more borne out of a personal interest than as a career plan. There is something that comes with the security of later life, a bit of breathing space, an opportunity to persue something you feel passionately about without the pressure of having to make a living from it.
I felt for the youngsters I trained alongside who needed to make enough income for rent, their young children, their car... Looking at the majority of employment offers I can see that they will need to put in a lot of hours. It's sad to see so many employers asking for qualifications and yet only offering minimum wage. I don't think there is a shortage of qualified therapists, I think there are a lack of job opportunities that pay enough to attract their interest. They have financial responsibilities to cover that the wage offers just don't match.
On the issue of qualifications, I only did qualifications to level 2 and then went elsewhere to get more defined training in the particular products and equipment I was interested in, I don't think that's particularly unusual in the beauty industry. Yet if I browse the job market I see that recruiters just want the level 3 qualification. They are missing a trick in exactly the way you describe.
Example; I specifically wanted to qualify in toe nail reconstructions and that is not in any generic level 3 that I'm aware of! There are limited products designed to do this properly and safely and I chose to train directly with the most prestigious of those. I did my research and invested my training funds accordingly. Whilst I technically don't hold a level 3 I am just as qualified but my certification is more diverse. When I looked into level 3 it just didn't move me as far as I wanted from level 2 content, it looked too much like 'more of the same' and I wanted other skills that weren't included.
I'm not convinced that employers have really embraced this diversity. Asking for level 3 is just playing it safe and dispensing with the task of having to research the value of alternative qualifications. In short, it's pretty lazy.
Thankfully I'm just happy working part time from home but I do feel some concern for those who need more than that. A mine field of contractless 'self employed' positions, the gamble of in house training quality, the possibility of having to juggle with more than one job to make up hours, the long hours needed to make a living... It's no surprise that going mobile or working from home are considered the better option by so many.
