Training standards within the industry

[BABTAC]

Hi all,
We need your help! BABTAC are currently investigating working with partners to address training standards within the industry and whether the training currently available is effectively meeting the needs of employers.

At a recent beauty and spa event the following statements were made by leading authorities in the industry, do you agree or disagree with them and if so in what way?

1. As a salon owner, when I employ a beauty therapist straight from college I have to carry out additional training to bring them up to our standards
2. Beauty therapists are not trained in college to be good retailers
3. Beauty therapists need management training to be able to progress to become a manager

We would really appreciate and value your thoughts, feedback and opinions on this which we can then use to develop any plans going forward.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Kind regards,
The BABTAC team.

 

[kezza*]

It sound good, but what about people doing day course's?

 

[Elaine143a]

Hi babtac, interesting thread.

This may get a better response if it was a "survey" rather than comments welcome.................

You could obviously add a comments section at the end for more detailed feedback

 

[BABTAC]

Hi Everyone,

Some Geeks have private messaged us feedback, which is a really great idea if you don't want your views public. We know that this is a topic that everyone in the beauty industry has a stance on, we really would value your feedback, so please don't be shy!

Kind Regards
The BABTAC team

 

[pinkfairy]

I did my NVQ level 2 and 3 at college and I would agree that we had no training or knowledge of retailing.
When I started working in a salon there were some treatments that I had been taught differently at college so required further training to be up to standard.
I think it's down to the individual as to whether or not they need to undertake a managerial training course or not. Some people are good leaders and decision makers and hold all the qualities that a good manager should have and through working in the industry gather enough experience.

 

[BABTAC]

Hi @Pinkfairy

Thank you so much for your feedback, we appreciate your thoughts and have passed them on to our research team. Your opinion matters greatly to us and will be used to help us drive our industry forward.

Kind Regards
The BABTAC team

 

[laurakate]

Hi all,

1. As a salon owner, when I employ a beauty therapist straight from college I have to carry out additional training to bring them up to our standards
2. Beauty therapists are not trained in college to be good retailers
3. Beauty therapists need management training to be able to progress to become a manager


The BABTAC team.

1. I believe there is a difference between what you learn in college compared to what is required when working for an employer. I'm not sure that it is a change in standards but simply a change in requirements. So for example, a treatment you learn in college might be a really nice treatment and it's not that you've been taught it wrong at all but in industry the treatment might be done in a slightly different way.

Examples of this would be things like how in college you are taught not to massage as much of the upper leg on a man as you would on a female client. However in industry I am required to massage just as much of a male client as a female client (which is fair enough really).

Another example would be in how at college a lot of emphasis was placed on blending natural tips whereas in all nail related trade tests I have done, I have been asked "wouldn't it be easier to stick on clear tips".

I suspect a lot of this comes down to the fact that in college you are working to meet the requirements of a qualification whereas in industry you are working to meet the requirements of a client.

2. I went to college and I believe that I'm a good retailer. It's not a subject that's covered much in college so I'm not sure how well I can answer that as I have retail experience prior to working in beauty. I know people who are natural retailers and people who might benefit from some training in that area.

3. I'm not sure about this one to be honest. On the one hand I think that to be a manager, a persons needs to be taught about things such as employment law, how to run a business from a financial perspective, how to get the best out of people and how to keep up morale (for example). But then again, some of these are things that a person may have a natural instinct for anyway.

Them's my thoughts Hope that was helpful

 

[BABTAC]

Hi @Laurakate

That was very helpful indeed, lots of stuff there to pass on to our research team. Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know your thoughts!

Kind Regards
The BABTAC team

 

[fozzyo]

I haven't done the College route, so would love to know your current research plans for those of us who have done / do one day training.

Question 1 is crucial, and it isn't simply a case of saying well students need training after college. Everyone entering a new salon needs training for that Salon, for its own policies and procedures and also product specific training. The problem is what are colleges teaching?

I'm a waxing trainer and train people in the use of pre-wax oil and peelable non-strip wax. How many colleges are doing this? This is the latest development in waxing and fairly universally thought of as best practice for the client, but how many still use talc and still use Hot Wax you need to chisel off the skin? Are colleges teaching the newest techniques and products so that therapists have the skills they may encounter? What is the point of teaching hot wax when more salons are moving to non-strip wax?

The previous poster touched on my final gripe with a lot of colleges. Their attitude to men - teaching students not to massage the stomach, glutes or thighs doesn't prepare them for work in the world. It teaches them that all men are sexual predators and can't be trusted! We need to be teaching students that men are very valuable clients! We need to teach them how to deal with their male clients, and how to filter out the small percentage of unwanted clients and most importantly how to deal with inappropriate clients.

The management aspect is a hard one, that assumes all students want to become managers. Personally I would have thought some specific options for students on Salon Management and Marketing would be beneficial. Particularly if the marketing included internet marketing which is becoming more important now.

Mat

 

[HWilliams]

Hi all,
We need your help! BABTAC are currently investigating working with partners to address training standards within the industry and whether the training currently available is effectively meeting the needs of employers.

At a recent beauty and spa event the following statements were made by leading authorities in the industry, do you agree or disagree with them and if so in what way?

1. As a salon owner, when I employ a beauty therapist straight from college I have to carry out additional training to bring them up to our standards
2. Beauty therapists are not trained in college to be good retailers
3. Beauty therapists need management training to be able to progress to become a manager

We would really appreciate and value your thoughts, feedback and opinions on this which we can then use to develop any plans going forward.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Kind regards,
The BABTAC team.

1. As a salon owner, if and when I employ a beauty therapist straight from college I have to carry out additional training to bring them up to our standards

I agree, if and when I need to employ anyone they would undergo training ranging from a company induction learning all salon procedures to keeping up to date with training and new skills/products that may come into the industry. This is good for them (personal development) and me/salon (correct effecient running)

When I have been employed in salons, I had 1/2 a day training in salon procedure and always promised I'd be sent for training which I never got. So as I felt let down, I would make sure that I contributed to a member of staff's progression and not make them feel undervalued. But there would have to be something in place as it would be too easy to stay somewhere, get trained and leave.

2. Beauty therapists are not trained in college to be good retailers

No they are not... I think there should be some element of this but cannot see how it would be implemented.

Personally, when I worked for other companies, I'd be more than happy to take people's money from them but to do it myself in my own business, I found it really hard to have the confidence to charge/upsell/ etc. I could have benefited from some kind of sales coaching yet my background is in sales. I believe sales is not just sales generally and is tailored to individual industries. I could sell trips to holiday makers abroad but found it hard to sell a moisturiser for example.

3. Beauty therapists need management training to be able to progress to become a manager

I feel that everyone should have knowledge of the day to day running of a salon or it will all fall apart if management were off sick or on holiday.

Yet not everyone who has management training makes good managers.

If someone displayed great people skills and demonstrated leadership qualities, I feel they should be nurtured into the role with any extra training needed.

I know people with degrees in management yet the way they speak to people is absurd and in no way going to motivate their team but they have the job because they have the degree and people involved have to like it or lump it and that in my opinion is wrong.

I know people that have been in industry for years so will not listen to any reason and just believe that they are the best salon/owner in the World.

But when that someone forgets to order stock, are they the best? When that someone tells a therapist off in front of clients are they the best? When that someone clearly has favourites, are they the best? And I've seen all this by various people over the years...

A good manager is someone who can admit that THEY made a mistake and learn from it, not try to shift the blame on someone else.

If there was a way to monitor EVERY manager in EVERY industry, I'm willing to bet a very high percentage would be out of a job and quite rightly so.

Sorry, digressed a bit there.

H x

 

[laurakate]

I agree with difficulties in terms of management.

I work for a very large company (in terms of staff numbers) and would appreciate more feedback with regards to how I'm doing...like I can't correct mistakes if I am not made aware of the facts that they are mistakes in the first place. In relation to this, sometimes I feel that a telling of is given when all that would be required would be a friendly "can you do it this way next time please".

So yeah, I agree that management work very hard and it's not a job that I would feel confident to do but in the same respect I think that some people in management could benefit from using the carrot more than the stick. Staff need to feel supported ultimately.

With regards to training at work (both in terms of work based proceedures as well as product training), I think that it could be carried out sooner. The attitude at the moment seems to be one of "training is subject to your current performance" but the problem with this is that current performance could have limited scope to improve without training your staff in the first place. It is a bit chicken and egg I suppose but I have generally found product training to be less available than is perhaps desirable in terms of allowing a therapist to be the best they can be in order to make everyone benefit.

With regards to waxing, I was taught only with cream wax using the pot and spatula method. As a result of this I have found some waxing trade tests very daunting when asked to use things like roller wax. I'm also gonna go out on a limb here and say that most people leave college having done one side of a bikini wax and one or two underarm waxes.

Just when I thought I'd said it all in the last post lol!

 

[laurakate]

Some more from me (just taking the opportunity to give BABTAC lots of useful info here )

In terms of going out into the industry after college, I think students need to be made aware of what they can expect in terms of employment law within the industry.

I say this because the sad reality is that in this industry, after college I was offered a handful of jobs that were breaking employment law in the following ways:
*offering cash in hand payments, often below the minimum wage
*calling someone self employed but asking them to fill an employed role (this was being done so that I would be using their products, attending the salon when they needed me and them charging prices that they had set but me only getting paid "commission")
*employers inviting me to interviews but then getting me to work for free all day (unsupervised!) and then trying to call it a trade test.

I mention the above because it took me 7 months after qualifying to find work that was all legal and ok. It would have really helped me save a lot of time and worry had I of known what to look out for in terms of detecting illegal practice at an earlier stage in my contact with potential employers.

 

[BABTAC]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for your comments, they were much appreciated. Although it's 'case closed' for our research team for the moment, to help what BABTAC are currently working on, there is no doubt we will be asking Geeks for more feedback in the future.

Keep an eye out for any further advancements from BABTAC & CIBTAC on the topic of training standards, whether it be by our latest news page on babtac.com, Vitality magazine and in the media. We'll also try to keep you posted on here too.

In the meantime, feel free to continue to discuss, we would still love to hear your thoughts.

Kind Regards
The BABTAC team

 

[tog]

Electrolysis training is sadly lacking theses days.
We need an NVQ3 unit with far more hours practical work. I carry out all the electrolysis treatments at my salon because none of the girls who come and work for me are ever confident enough to do it, after next to no practice on clients whilst they are at college.
In the long run I suppose this is starting to benefit me because there are fewer salons now which offer electrolysis, so less competition for me, but that's not the point.
The training is awful.
Do something about it please BABTAC.