Targeted training

Kerry Symons, spa manager at Champneys Henlow, tells us what makes apprenticeships such a good option for beauty salon and spa businesses

Why are you passionate about apprenticeships?

“I was an apprentice 32 years ago, and it was a Governmentrun scheme, but I did my training inhouse every Thursday. So, I was very proapprenticeships because they’d kind of disappeared. The practical knowledge of therapists coming straight from college wasn’t as good. As a spa manager, I would do an interview and some people couldn’t do an eyelash tint or a proper manicure.

“As a company, we do a full week’s induction anyway, so we were teaching [college-educated] therapists about the standards we wanted for Champneys – but that week was never enough. Some colleges had high standards, but others had lower standards. With the apprenticeship scheme, you can tailor it to your company. Things like finishing touches are a massive deal for us at Champneys.

“They can get so much hands-on practice, which I don’t feel that students always get at college. The apprenticeship gives them that dedication because it’s 40 hours a week. Sometimes you get people from colleges and they only want to work three or four days. I never had that in me! I always wanted to work five days. I think the apprenticeship brings them back to reality.”

How do you train them in the softer skills needed?

“It’s about the hard work ethic. I still go to a lot of colleges and do talks, and the students are on their phones, they’ve still got their coats on – the ethos is totally different. For me, to get the apprenticeship scheme up and running at Champneys again was amazing because I can nurture them as a manager, and help inspire them.

“We also have an input on what they’re trained in. We have a really good relationship with our apprenticeship provider Armonia and its founder Diane Hey, so there’s constant communication to make sure that when the apprentices come back to me, I know who needs to put more effort in, who needs more theory work and who needs more practice.”

What business skills can be learned on an apprenticeship?

“The apprenticeship gives a really good insight into the financial side of things. At college, they don’t really teach that – they don’t retail, they don’t talk about targets. In our morning meetings, we talk about where we are with our monthly targets, who’s doing well, and that encourages them to go on further towards being a senior therapist or a premier therapist, then go into management.”

How else do apprentices benefit your business?

“It brings revenue to the resort. Once the apprentice has trained and passed, they go on to our treatment menu as an apprentice offer, where the guest pays half price to have a treatment with an apprentice. We’re constantly bringing in revenue. Apprentices can also help with all the duties that make a therapist’s life easier – things like opening and closing duties. It’s a real benefit to us, and a real benefit to them as well.”

How do apprenticeships differ from other routes into beauty therapy?

“On-the-job training. At Champneys we offer things like floatation beds, thalassotherapy pools and mud chambers – we get the apprentices to have guest contact with them straight away, so they have the confidence in dealing with people before they actually have to touch them.

“That can be very difficult, especially from a young age when they haven’t really had a job before. So, it’s good for them to be able to communicate with guests from all walks of life right from the beginning, which is an opportunity they might not have elsewhere.”