Millie & Co Salon was established 20 years ago based in Hampton, Peterborough. After working in the industry for 36 years Catherine Miller, the salon owner, decided to work with Heart of England Training to share her passion of hairdressing.

“I chose to have an apprentice because when you have a student that shows the passion, you can really grow them. It’s really lovely and rewarding to see their confidence grow, watching their skillset develop”.

Rosie, Catherine’s apprentice, joined Millie & Co three years ago. Nearing the end of her Level 2 Hairdressing qualification, she plans to move onto her Level 3 afterwards. Rosie was nominated by her assessor to be in the ‘Apprenticeship of the Year Awards’, which she felt really boosted her confidence.

“I find it a very big achievement for myself. I feel that I’ve come really far…because when I first started, I was quite shy. Working with the public gained me a lot of confidence”.

When offering placements at Millie & Co, Catherine really enjoyed watching her apprentices grow “You are offering them a trade for life in a really strong industry that’s evolving all the time…it attracts all sorts of different clients”.

“For instance,” she added “the apprentice we have at the moment, Rosie, she’s just been nominated for Apprentice of the Year. It’s fabulous to see that”.

Rosie has enjoyed working with everybody at the salon, finding Catherine to be really supportive of her apprenticeship.

“We’re finding models for different hairstyles; hair types and you also get in-house training with L’oreal professional” she said “I wouldn’t been able to do that without the practical training from Catherine and theory training from Heart of England”.

When asked how she found working with Heart of England Training, Catherine said it has been “exceptionally good”.

“I’m really impressed with the one-to-one, it’s like a private training session that the girls receive from them. It’s extremely well monitored and they’re very supportive, if you’ve got any questions, they’re always on the other end of the phone”.

“we’ve produced some great results” she added “one being Rosie getting nominated”.

You can find out more about the Apprenticeship journey of Mille & Co with our latest video – Click here