Teenagers in India will soon have a Beauty Therapy toolkit course to help them learn the basics, thanks to Forth Valley College’s Hospitality and Salon Services Department.
A team consisting of Lisa Evitt, Kathryn Baird and Lisa Hachemi (International Support Co-ordinator) with help from colleagues across the college, managed to deliver a draft bid - in little over four days, to the British Council through Scotland’s Colleges – and land the job of delivering the course for 14-16 year-olds.
India is second only to the USA as the largest English speaking country in the world with 125 million people considering it to be their first language. A need had been identified for a basic Beauty Therapy toolkit to help reinforce this sector as a potential career for more young people to enter into, and FVC’s Salon Services team have laid the foundations for the skills to be taught in schools throughout the country.
The nine-hour toolkit course is based around a Level 1 qualification and includes make-up, nail art and hair styling. The most challenging aspect for the team was that it had to be developed as something that could be taught in an ordinary classroom, due to the lack of specialist facilities and equipment available to school pupils in India.
Lisa Evitt, FVC’s Operations Manager in the Department of Hospitality and Salon Services, said: “A gap has been identified in this area of vocational training in India and we were asked to fill it with this new toolkit. I am so proud of our team to manage to develop this impressive toolkit course in such a short space of time, everyone involved did a brilliant job.
“It was challenging as we did not know what skills and facilities the schools who would be offering this training would have. However, it will definitely be taught in ordinary classrooms so we started from there. We are confident it will be successful as the skills have been tried and tested here at Forth Valley College and in the UK for years.”
Kathryn Baird, a Beauty Therapy lecturer, added: “In the past in India, Beauty Therapy has been looked upon as a menial job and not appreciated fully. We are hopeful that this new toolkit can help to change perceptions. Having this formal qualification will really help and empower young people in India to take control of their careers within the industry.
“It is a vocational rather than an academic qualification and we are really happy with it and think we have given the British Council much more than was asked.”
Lisa Hachemi, who helped with the IT, translations and overall look of the toolkit, said: “There has been a massive amount of work that has gone into this project and despite the fact there was only a few days to get it done, everyone has done extremely well and produced a very professional piece of work.”
To find out more about Forth Valley College's Salon Services courses call 01324 403000.