Tanya Patene
Headquarters Design Space, New Plymouth
Like many others in the Taranaki region, Tanya Patene did her apprenticeship under the guidance of Lyndsay Loveridge at Lyndsay’s Headquarters Salon. After 12 years working at Headquarters Hair by Design, Tanya started her own salon, Headquarters Design Space.
Headquarters Design Space has now been in operation for 15 years and employs a team of nine stylists, four of whom were trained by Tanya. Three of Tanya’s stylists have been with her since establishing the salon, as has her administration person.
“There’s such a shortage of senior stylists so it’s much better to train them yourself. You train them the way you would like them to be.”
“To get an apprentice through requires an equal amount of work from employers, colleagues and trainers. And for it to work the apprentice needs to be totally committed.”
“To be successful you need to be a really good communicator. Your staff needs to feel that they can approach you about anything, whether it’s good or bad. If you don’t hear it, you can’t fix it,” she says.
Tanya has worked with Lyndsay Loveridge to design a training programme for her apprentices which breaks down what they need to know and be able to do for each year of their apprenticeship.
Apprentices have between 18 and 20 full days of training each year and spend dedicated time each week working alongside senior stylists perfecting what they have learnt. Both apprentices and stylists earn ‘key performance indicator dollars’ monthly which they can use for their own development.
“We are known for our really good training structure. We utilise whoever is the best person at teaching the skill – it could be a senior stylist or it could be the last person to complete that unit.”
“The majority of my apprentices come straight from school. I’ve always got Gateway students and one of my current students has already asked about doing an apprenticeship with me next year.”
“It’s not just about providing training for your apprentices but making sure all your staff are able to learn and become better at what they do.”
“Learning never stops. You’re only as good as the last thing you learnt. You’ve got to keep learning all the time and not just if you’re an apprentice, but always,” says Tanya.
“How do salons expect to progress and keep their staff motivated and challenged if they don’t train them?”
