Advanced treatments and relationship skills top employers’ list of future staff training needs

Beauty and hair employers say greater training in advanced treatments, social media skills and relationship building will help address the skills deficit.

According to VTCT’s 2017 Skills Foresight Report, which surveyed more than 700 beauty and hair employers, training providers and suppliers, employers’ needs are changing due to increasingly knowledgeable clients.

Over the next five years, employers said that the most important hard skills needed would be business and customer service skills, along with technical training in aromatherapy, massage, tattoo removal, microblading and electrical body treatments.

Soft skills employers want staff trained in include coping strategies, relationship building, self-confidence, decision-making, motivation, creativity, problemsolving and negotiation.

Respondents also put forward suggestions on how these gaps could be mitigated, with more focus on building team spirit (voted by 22% respondents) coming out top, followed by mentoring schemes (22%), increased spend on accredited training (18%), and changing working practices (14%).

The full report is available at vtct.org.uk/skills-foresight-report