Hello and welcome to another blog I has been a while since I last wrote one. Hope your’re all ok and gradually getting back to normality again post covid. It has been a very difficult year for everyone, but we are seeing changes and improvements being made to get our lives back to normality at long last.
It has taken it’s toll on the beauty industry at first many salons have closed due to our industry being hit very hard indeed. However, I am now seeing a rise in new salons appearing again, so I do really think the industry is recovering very fast indeed!
We have seen a surge in new students in our academy wishing to re train in the beauty industry. I often get asked on the telephone is the beauty industry a good industry to get into workwise? Will I get a job in the beauty industry when I have qualified? Is the beauty industry saturated?
My answer to those questions are always sheer honesty. Yes there are plenty of jobs in the beauty industry, yes the beauty industry is growing year upon year and continuing to grow it is one of the largest industries. No it will never become saturated.
Standing out
When we have a new recruit of students I always like to do their inductions to give the students a sense of what they have to look forward to, to give them the low down on what makes a good therapist etc. The pit falls and how to avoid them. The income they can expect to earn if they embark on a good education programme and map out their journey and goals.
When you are a new NVQ student you will want to know all of these important things to make sure you are making the right decision, as we tend to find students sometimes when I speak to them on the phone they can be very unsure and doubt themselves, it is our job as a tutor to put all of those thoughts out of your head completely, as these self-sabotaging thoughts will stop you from going ahead with your beauty journey. However, to replace these thoughts with what if’s? What if this was the best journey of my life finding a career that I adore? What will the quality of my life be? How will this affect my well being? Are you starting to see a shift now in your thinking?
Replacing these negative thoughts with positive thoughts can make a huge difference to your life. We have just received a lot of the NVQ students certificates this week and given some of these certificates out to our wonderful students
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These students who have just qualified in NVQ level 2 beauty therapy, have amazing careers ahead of them. Emma has started up her own mobile beauty business specialising in lash lift & tints and facial skin care treatments because she really loves doing those treatments, she chooses her own days she wants to work to fit in around her family. Emma is now studying level 3 too, Jackie has set up her own home based beauty salon and has already got clients already, she chooses her own hours and days she wants to work and is also studying level 3 with us. Anna who travels from Cardiff every week to train with us, has now got a job in a spa in Cardiff and is completing advanced training with us on level 3. Anna who is another students, yes we have 2 Anna’s is doing work in an aesthetic clinic in Birmingham as she has a passion for aesthetics and wishes to do them in her future career, she is now enrolled on level 3 beauty therapy electric course with us too. Swati who has recently completed NVQ level 2 beauty therapy with us, works for Superdrug in Birmingham as a head therapist she too is studying level 3 beauty with also. Jasmine is working in a salon in Cotswolds and also running a home based salon from her very own log cabin in the garden! And so many other student success stories but too many to mention.
It is so satisfying seeing our students succeed and set up their own salons and home based salons or get offered employment with reputable salons and brands. We have so much success from our students careers, that we don’t shout about it enough and we should.
New Courses
We are now offering Level 4 micro pigmentation (semi permanent make up) Marketa our tutor has a wealth of experience and has won awards in ‘Best Brow Technician’ in semi permanent make up and is delivering this course at our academy. If you are looking to go into a career of doing semi permanent brows, this is another huge industry to tap into if your good at what you do. So where would you start with having this career?
You would need to complete level 2 beauty therapy first, then go onto level 3 beauty, this is a pre requisite with VTCT to be able to do this level 4 you must have level 3 beauty therapy. I have had quite a few enquiries with people wanting to train in this, however they think they can go straight into a level 4 qualification? But the way I explain it is would you build a house without a foundation? Of course not, this would lead to a whole load of problems in the future, we do not cut corners in our academy and never will. We believe in raising the standards in the industry, not the industry having a load of claims going in left right and centre in the future because I can really see this increasing.
Insurance companies stipulate that you must have these pre requisite qualifications otherwise you aren’t insured, it’s as simple as that. VTCT our awarding body also state that you must have these courses first before building upon them, as you learn the foundations on the NVQ level 2 beauty therapy course. To be honest you should want to be as knowledgeable as possible to your clients and give them the best of your expertise and knowledge in beauty industry, that way you will attract the right clients for your business, this is so very important indeed. You learn all of your health & safety, Cross infection, cross contamination, contra indications, contra actions, sanitisation, sterilisation, client consultation techniques, record cards and the importance of it, COSHH regulations, GDPR (data protection) etc. how can you move onto a level 3 qualification if you don’t know any of this? These are the important fundamentals and could be the reason why you don’t get any claims against you in the future. We focus very much on health & safety at our academy so much. We are still using ppe and masks and visors in the academy to protect all of our tutors and students and won’t be relaxing this any time soon.
Injectables filler course
We are now offering injectable courses, you must be qualified up to level 3 beauty therapy again to be able to do this course as you need it as a pre requisite. Samantha Worton our Aesthetic tutor and her colleague Lorraine Thomas will be delivering this course at the academy, they both have a wealth of experience in the industry. I have attached the link for the course with all of the details on below:
I was very relieved to hear that they have stopped any one under 18 getting these procedures done now, at last! The industry is tightening up and so they should do. There is too much pressure and peer pressure for young teenagers nowadays with social media and the need to look like their friends and follow in their footsteps. Let’s embrace our natural beauty inside and out, I am not saying don’t have botox at all however when your’re a little older say in your 40’s or 50’s.
Hydro Facial Course
Again this is a new course that is very popular indeed and our amazing tutor Samantha Worton will be delivering this course. Anything to do with facial treatments I just adore full stop!
Clients are very savvy nowadays and know all of the latest procedures and will be wanting these treatments, so be warned if you aren’t offering these they will go to a therapist who keeps up to date with the latest facial procedures, keep ahead of your game always, every day is a school day J
If you are looking to upskill, maybe you own your own beauty salon and you need staff to train we can give a discount on for a minimum of 3 members of staff or more on our costs per course for the same course. We can come out to you to train staff members for an extra cost. Email: info@westmidlandsnailandbeautyacademy.co.uk for more details.
If you want any advice on this please just give us a call on 0121 794 0612 we are more than happy to discuss further.
Consultation Techniques/Client record cards
I wanted to discuss this topic as I feel it is such an important factor in the beauty industry. I always like my blogs to be a little informative, and I have shared this information in previous blogs because I believe you can never mention this enough, as sometimes it’s difficult to know what to discuss. I hear this so much from students who attend our academy and they tell us their stories of going to a beauty salon and the fact that they never ever have a record card completed by the therapist or even a consultation. I find this unbelievable indeed. This is a legal requirement by law to do a record card for every client who comes through your door, your clients have to give legal consent for you to work on them and do a beauty treatment and a beauty consultation with them to establish any health issues or conditions that the client may have that may impact the way the beauty treatment is carried out or if at all for insurance purposes too this needs to be done. If you aren’t having a record card done then this invalidates the salons insurance straight away, which then puts your clients health at risk and your salon at risk too against any future claims. Any salons who are not investing in the health & safety of their clients should not be operating, that’s a FACT, this is breaching health & safety laws too. Food for thought!
Also, the most important part of that record card is the clients signature, why? Because it shows authenticity that is why, without a client signature the record card is invalid and this also invalidates your insurance went to a salon in Dudley, not mentioning any salon names as do not want any defamatory claims going in against me. I had booked in for a micro dermabrasion treatment, the therapist did not at all complete a record card, she just asked me about any concerns with my skin, that was all, I had gone with a friend we had both booked in for this treatment, as I was qualified in micro dermabrasion and used to do a lot of it in my own salon I understood the procedure.
I can honestly say the treatment itself was amazing, the therapist was excellent at performing this treatment, however I was very concerned that she hadn’t taken any of my medical history down, when the treatment was over, I did not receive any aftercare advice at all, it was a blazing hot day, now this was so important on a hot summers day to advise me that I needed to apply a total sun block of SPF 50 to my face as I could end up with burns to my face, my friend didn’t receive any either. I therefore had to give this important advice to my friend as I didn’t want her to have an injury to her face and end up in hospital or at the doctors.
This advice is part of health & safety and insurance companies now are stipulating that you must give your clients written aftercare advice, we recommend that you do this either on your Instagram page and facebook business page for each treatment, or a little aftercare card, get your client to sign your record card to state they have received this aftercare advice, always get client signatures, it shows authenticity, it is then there in writing and should insurance companies question you over this you can refer them to your business page or website.
My son is a compliance officer in Insurance and the steps they go to to find information out you would not believe, you have to have your wits about you, I always say to our students if you are doing everything by the book and not cutting corners you will never have any claims go in against you and you will have plenty of clients waiting and queuing up at your doors. Professionalism always pays, don’t skimp on this. Aftercare is just as important as the very treatment that your client is having and I really believe it helps so much eliminate any future claims against you by giving out this advice.
Face To Face Training
Yes we are still offering face to face training on all of our courses. We are finding an up surge in people wanting to do face to face training as opposed to online training. I am not saying I am against online courses ie, such as admin or computer courses, GDPR, health & safety etc but not practical based online training, I guess I am old school and always will be. Whether we will go down that route in the future as we did look into doing it, but decided to stay with face to face training for now, as we enjoy seeing every little detail that you cannot always see on Skype or zoom, our students love to be watched over especially if they are new to the skills they are learning but that is our preference I am not knocking it, if some businesses or academies want to offer that route then that’s fine and it may suit some students better than face to face training.
I hope you have all had a little bit of value from this blog as I know I waffle on at times but like to create some value to you all where possible and anyone who I have taught I always like to give you my knowledge and not keep it all to myself, hope you all have a very blessed October!
Just remember pick our brains in beauty we are ready and waiting for your call.
Kind regards.
Lyndsey xxx
Academy Director