Jonathan joined Heart of England Training just over a year ago, delivering Hairdressing at Levels 2 & 3 as well as Maths and English.  

Jonathan was a hairdresser, being trained as an apprentice through Heart of England Training. He got inspired to teach others, so he became an assessor within the salon.  

“The opportunity came up to be an assessor within the salon through Heart of England, so I’ve done my training through Heart of England…I was assessing within the workplace just for our staff.”  

However, the salon did leave Heart of England Training. But after the COVID-19 lockdown, he realised how much he missed teaching others. So, once he saw the vacancy “That was it”.  

Jonathan felt it was a nice factor that he knew the company quite well already, putting him at ease when interviewing for the role.   

“It was, especially on my interview. Rachel going ‘I know you’ and I responded ‘I know you too’…I’ve only met Rachel through the standardisation meetings, so least I knew a face”.  

Jonathan wanted to give a shout-out to Bekky Earnshaw, Isabel Twombley and Emma Johnson. As he shadowed them when he started at Heart of England Training.  

“It’s nice that they’re on the end of the phone. I find that there is always someone to help out…there’s always somebody to contact”.   

When asked to describe himself in one word, Jonathan’s choice was “over generous”  

“I get told that a lot. Especially around Christmas time…I rather be generous than stingy” he added “I get joy out of somebody else’s joy, even though I’ve not really done much, that’s always rewarding”.  

Outside of work, Jonathan loves to bake. Always getting asked for his Lemon Drizzle Cake. For any amateur bakers out there, he recommends to watch ‘How To Cook That’ on YouTube.  

“I watch her videos every week when she posts them, she does debunk videos and how to cook…she also does cake fails and how to correct them”. 

Jonathan’s top piece of advice to someone starting an apprenticeship is: “Do it!”.  

“Learn from everybody. Everyone has different methods of doing things, and what you’ll find is you can learn from different people, adapt and take your own knowledge and skills. That’s the best thing I’ve found”.