Heart of England Training has enjoyed a working relationship with Yan Hair for over 15 years. What makes this story particularly special is that one of our Apprenticeship Account Managers, Chantelle, actually began her hairdressing career at Yan’s when she was just 16. Chantelle spent 9 years with Yan and business partner Rob, first as an apprentice and then onto a senior stylist. Yan and Rob have over 70 years’ combined experience as hairdressers.
Yan and Rob had worked together previously and opened their own salon in 1991 on Clarendon Park Road. After five years, they outgrew these premises and moved to their current building on Queens Road. After another five or six years, the salon expanded upstairs – thanks to the homegrown talent (trained in-house) that gave the salon the capacity to grow.
Training is part of the Yan culture. The salon’s ethos is about ongoing training and continuous professional development: “Your training doesn’t finish when your apprenticeship ends,” says Rob who, with Yan, has maintained a 20-year relationship with Aveda who provide regular training to the salon team.
“You never get paid to do an A Level!” says Yan, who firmly believes that the best way to learn is in the salon: dealing with paying customers and naturally growing a clientele. The apprenticeship route provides a “warts and all” exposure to the industry, but also allows the salon to maintain standards and develop their own homegrown talent, who get to work with really experienced, seasoned professionals.
Yan Hair has received various Customer Service awards through SalonSpy and the team is proud to work with such a wonderful, well-established clientele in a cosmopolitan area of Leicester. “It’s not just about hairdressing,” says Yan, “it’s about the total salon experience.”
We asked Yan and Rob what advice they would give to aspiring hairdressing apprentices. These are their key points:
- Do your research on the salon
- Make sure you understand what the industry involves
- Employers are keen to see that you have work experience of some kind to show you can work with other people
- Employers are looking for people who are social
- Present yourself in a way that reflects the job
- First impressions are important
- Come with questions – this shows interest
Quite often, an interview can lead to a trial day which can then lead to Saturday work before the apprenticeship officially starts. This ‘getting to know’ process provides a good opportunity before really committing to the apprenticeship; to find out whether this is the right career and the right salon.
Yan Hair is rated 5 stars on SalonSpy (with over 1,000 reviews) and the culture of training is why the salon stands-out: the staff stay…and come back!
