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Hair Dressing Apprentices Give Themselves the Chop

It has been reported that the number of hairdressing apprenticeships in England had halved between 2016 and 2020.

The National Hair and Beauty Federation (NHBF) has anticipated that another drop of 30 to 50% in the coming year. The skills minister declared recently that any employer who took on a new apprentice before 30 September 2021 would get £3,000.

The NHBF’s chief executive, Richard Lambert, has publicised that there is a concern that this could potentially have a lasting effect – “We’ve seen from other industries which have gone through recessions, construction for example” he then went on to say “That if you have a period of a gap with apprentices coming in, that gap can then be seen through the whole of the career arc over the next forty years”.

His organisation has estimated that the number of people starting apprenticeships in hairdressing and barbering has severely plummeted from 15,450 in 2016/17 to around 7,000 in 2019/20.

The concern being that barbers and salon owners could not afford to take on anyone new to train them on the job, as they would not be generating income, as the industry was brought to its knees due to the pandemic.

Partly it’s a concern that schools push the academic route at young people so they tend to be thinking about college and university rather than practical or vocational” he concludes.