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MHF highlights concerns over part-time apprenticeships
Merseyside Hairdressing Forum (MHF) chair, Brian Quinn, is voicing his concerns over a recent rise in the promotion of part-time apprenticeships to employers, carried out by national providers of hairdressing training. Brian, director of Merseyside training provider, tpm recognises it’s getting more difficult to find employers who can afford to recruit apprentices. But he stresses that actively encouraging companies to employ part-time rather than full-time apprentices is not the solution:
Proactively marketing part-time apprenticeships contravenes guidance
“Of course, the part-time option should always be available to learners whose personal circumstances mean they can’t work full time – if they’re a single parent, for example. However, proactively marketing this delivery model to employers at best contravenes guidance issued by the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) who fund apprenticeships, and at worst could adversely affect quality standards. This is because the Specification for Apprenticeships Standards in England requires apprentices to receive 280 guided learning hours each year. This is very difficult to achieve with apprentices working for just 16 hours a week, especially as most of them will have been employed to work on a salon’s busiest days.”
Quality is the priority
The official guidance clearly states that “only where the learner cannot complete the full 30 hours should a provider consider a part-time job. Reduced hours cannot be based only on the needs or interests of the employer where this puts the quality of the Apprenticeship at risk”, and the MHF adheres strictly to this. To members, the standard of training is the absolute priority. To this end, they have undertaken projects such as the MHF peer review, where learning providers, who are essentially in competition, opened their doors and honestly reviewed each other’s teaching practices in pursuit of continual improvement. They've developed a code of conduct and a quality guarantee that all members sign up to which ensure standards are maintained. Their joint working has led to the gradual emergence of best practice in both the promotion and delivery of apprenticeships in the area.
“As providers we have a responsibility to the learner, and also to the quality of our programmes and the apprenticeships brand. We have to be careful we don’t make ourselves vulnerable to the kind of criticism levelled at the old YTS hairdressing programmes of the 1980s”, continues Brian.
MHF committed to high standards
For MHF members, maintaining the high standards of their apprenticeships programmes is the main objective. Brian concludes:
“Employers and learners can have absolute confidence in the standard of hairdressing apprenticeships training provided by MHF members, underpinned as it is by our quality guarantee and the internal systems we have developed. Apprenticeships remain a premier choice for learners wanting to build a career as stylists, and for salons to develop the skilled, customer-focussed, and business-aware staff they need if they are to survive these difficult economic times.”
For more information on the MHF, contact Brian Quinn
.
