Shrewsbury K2 Salon praised for apprentice scheme
A top Shropshire hair salon has been praised for its thriving apprenticeship scheme which has been running for over 40 years.
The K2 Salon in Shrewsbury’s Darwin Centre has produced over 200 qualified hair stylists in that time and owner Philip Minton’s conveyor belt of talent shows no signs of running out.
And on the eve of National Apprenticeship Week, which starts on Monday, March 11, K2 have been given a seal of approval by Wolverhampton College which works with the salon on their training programme for young stylists.
College lecturer Marion Towland said: “Our partnership with K2 works very well and the apprentices benefit from the programme and from the experience of working alongside high quality professionals.
“They get individual attention and K2 have their own team of assessors whom we also monitor. We have been working with them for eight years and it’s a good model of delivery and has been very successful.”
The business was set up by Philip Minton, a Bond Street stylist in the London of the Swinging Sixties, back in 1971 and now Philip, 63, of Weston Lullingfields, estimates he has trained over 200 stylists since then.
He said: “From our point of view and most importantly from our customers’ point of view we need to know that our stylists will cut hair the way we want them to but we work with Vidal Sassoon’s artistic team to ensure the cutting is precise.
“We also have a very good partnership with Wolverhampton College who come in every week – lots of people train hairdressers to pass the exams but we want them to learn to do the job and the College work that way as well.
“What is important is to get people who want to do hairdressing not just as a job but as a career because the demands are always changing as fashions and techniques change.”
The salon currently have two apprentices, Lucy Sumner, 17, and Dan Harvey, 16, and both are doing well according to another of K2’s stable of in-house trained stylists, Lucy Ainge.
Lucy, 20, from Copthorne, Shrewsbury, started as a Saturday girl and qualified last year and she said: “I began as an apprentice at 16 when I left school and it worked very well.
“The tutor comes in from the College once a week to do the theory and we have trained assessors among the staff who can do the practical.
“And there are so many good stylists here, starting with Philip, that you can learn so much from them so the training is really good. It’s a really good system.”
Dan, from Baschurch, said: “I came here at 16 after not really beng sure what I wanted to do but I have really enjoyed the apprenticeship which takes two years.
“The training is excellent and lot of the people here have come through it which tells you how good it is.
“I’d like to travel so hopefully this will give me skills which I can use wherever I am in the world.”
Lucy Sumner, 17, from Springfield, Shrewsbury, also began as a Saturday girl and began her apprenticeship at K2 i18 months ago and she said: “It’s going really well and I’ve learned so much since I’ve been here.
“Since I was young I’ve always wanted to be a hairdresser and it all just fell into place when I got a Saturday job here and they offered me an apprenticeship.”
Philip Minton’s own inspiration came from the great Vidal Sassoon who died last year and he said: “I do remember the moment I wanted to be a hairdresser. I was watching TV and Vidal Sassoon came on one of these Saturday night programmes with two lovely girls on each arm and these two women just stood there and shook the beautiful bobs he had created for them.
“After I had finished my apprenticeship I went to a Bond Street company and they retrained me to do it their way. That’s what the major salons do and that’s what we do too.”
Kevin Lockwood, Manager of the Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside Shopping Centres, said: “Phillip’s salon is a fantastic training ground for young stylists with a wonderful reputation for quality and it is an important part of the varied offer we have here in the Darwin Centre.”
