Apprenticeship Incentives

Apprenticeship Incentives

The start of 2021 has seen an incredible upswing in the numbers of new apprenticeship signups that’s coming through the doors. We’re really hopeful, fingers crossed that the signs of national recovery are happening in 2021. That this growth will happen across the board and it will have a huge pipeline of hairdressers coming through the system. Fueling this demand is the incredible sums of money that is coming our way through the boosting apprenticeship commencement wage subsidy. It’s a $1.2 billion scheme and it’s designed to support businesses to take on new apprentices. The funding is for all trades, but in hairdressing and barbering I suppose it’s there to attract skilled workers that can act as the future building blocks of our industry.

In real terms, the boosting apprenticeship commencement wage subsidy means that a salon who engages an apprentice might be eligible for up to 50% of their wage. That’s a maximum $7000 a quarter, amazing figures. But that’s not all, there’s more funding as well.  We’ve been blessed for new entrants, with funded programs through the job trainer scheme. Job Trainer is a $1 billion dollar by funding partnership between federal and state government and it’s designed to provide low cost or fee free courses targeted at 17 to 25 year olds who are looking for work. So what does that mean for hairdressing, it really means Certificate II in Salon Assistant.

Traditionally Certificate II in Salon Assistant is the domain of school based trainees. But what it will offer is a fee free or low cost option for organizations to provide industry with new entrants who have some basic skills and can hit the ground running. While the following list isn’t exhaustive, the qualification includes the building blocks and the key elements of that qualification include a number of things. It includes salon procedures, includes an understanding of shampoo and basin, blow drying, reception and communication, being able to greet prepare clients, and then obviously, color application and massage.

The Cert II in Salon Assistant can provide a perfect introduction to the trade for an aspiring hairdresser. And it could also, in my mind help reduce the high rate of cancellation that can be the bain of a lot of salons. Successful completion of a pre-vocational programs such as Cert II helps to sift out those who are unsure if hairdressings for them.  Ideally, a strong industry based program run by a college like ourselves will incorporate lots of industry placement and that will allow salons to have a look at potential staff and invariably try before they buy. Because of the free nature of the Job Trainer program it provides industry an unprecedented opportunity to compete for new entrants with other careers. And for us it also helps us make the most of opportunities to deliver programs in college that exciting and contemporary.

Programs will need to be really focused on developing key soft skills and furthermore, ongoing success of Cert II programs only really works if your colleges align themselves really closely with salons. In the end, increasing the number of qualified salon assistants is pointless if salon owners are unwilling to take them on due to a lack of skill, and the lack of the ability to add value. So finding ways to make that happen is really important, particularly from a college perspective, in making the skills that they have really industry relevant. For salon owners looking to access those who completed the Job Trainer, qualification or engage with those who are undertaking qualifications as part of the program over the coming months, the best course of action is to contact your RTO like ourselves, as we obviously have a huge role to play in attracting new people to our industry.

With substantial government funding in place by the boost apprenticeship commencement wage subsidy, and the new entrant job training program, it’s the first sign of green shoots and new growth for the future of the industry in some time. The challenge for us is to excite and inspire those who’ve been newly attracted to industry. But above all, the challenge is to retain and nurture those people once they come so that they decide to stay.

Excellence in Education

Excellence in Education

As we move into the award season, with the Australian hair industry awards, and the Australian Fashion Awards, it’s an important time to reflect, particularly on what excellence in education really looks like and how it can serve industry better.  Excellence in education and service to our industry is importantly recognized alongside business and creative award categories and some of the greatest names in hairdressing education have taken out these awards over the years. The honour roll reads like a who’s who, Sharon Blain Education, Dario Cotroneo Education, BIBA Academy and Sevilles are just a few of the names that have taken out these awards over time.

So I suppose for me as a training business, we reflect on what these education businesses have in common and what are the benchmarks that we need to exceed and reach to be the very best in hairdressing education. For me, in such a creative and focused progressive industry, moving forward and staying current is the critical thing. We see the best of breed educators are those who are able to reflect on what they are currently doing, outline a range of activities that they’re undertaking that challenges the norms and keeps pace with industry. There’s some real key touch points to cover if you’re going to be the best of breed in education.  You need a progressive calendar. You need to have marketing and branding that attracts the next generation.  You need to have a philosophy and teaching concept that second to none. You need to work on feedback and industry engagement from all parties and you need to develop really strong plans for your trainers to keep them up to date and current. And I suppose supporting young learners beyond just the formal training, so that they can grow as people as well to grow into our industry. I think finally contributing to industry growth and sustainability is important. Everything that you do as an educator needs to be looked at through the lens of what is best for industry.

Importantly, there are some frameworks out there that that we really admire and love to be part of.  We are a member of the Australian Hairdressing Council, and the Australian Hairdressing Council recognizes excellence in education through its RTO Select platform.  RTO Select is amazing because it looks education leaders, it looks at industry engagement and communication. It looks at training and assessment resources, and it also looks at currency of educators, as well as college salon design including those things that are so critical, which are environmental and social responsibilities. Having benchmarks like that helps us to achieve great things in training. And it helps us to keep ourselves connected with everything that’s happening in salons daily and with the barbershops that we look after. We’ll be entering the awards this year like many others, as always trying to benchmark ourselves and do the very best we can.

If you’d like to talk about ways that we can potentially work together or advice on training arrangements. We’d love to connect. MIG training is committed to working as best we can to provide excellence in education.