If you are still at school, offer to do weekend or after school work at a salon. This will start to give you experience within a salon environment, and is usually a pathway into an apprenticeship.

Employers want to know that you are keen and dedicated to their hairdressing business. They are going to invest a lot of time and money in you and want to know that they are making a good investment.

You should find a salon that you would like to work in, present yourself well and go and talk to them. It is important that you check to see that the salon is qualified to train an apprentice and has enough clients to help you get the necessary experience. You could check out the vacancies page of this website. Once you get a job in a salon (and you have an Employment Agreement) your HITO Sales & Liaison Manager will sign you into a training agreement and support you during your training.

What should I look for in a salon?

Go to your local salons or salons where you think you would like to work. Ask yourself how you felt about the salon, and whether you would want to work there.

Ask the owner/manager:

• Does the salon offer structured training?
• How they train apprentices, is it look and learn, or look and learn during set training sessions?
• Would you get paid while you are at off-job training?

If you would like to work in the salon, ask the owner/manager for a job and tell them why they should take you on. You could offer to work for no pay for a short time, after school or on weekends, to show your keenness and willingness to learn. Remember to take your CV along with you. This should be as visual as possible and remember they don’t expect you to have any previous hairdressing experience.

List the reasons you should be chosen. These might be:

• Keen and willing
• Hard worker
• Quick learner
• Good communicator
• Good listener
• Love working with people
• Creative and artistic
• Well presented
• Interested in fashion
• Outgoing personality