New beauty school opens in Barrhead

The Hair and Beauty Academy is the latest strand of training offered by The YES Academy in Barrhead.

The academy’s ethos is to help young adults who need support getting onto the employment ladder.

A spokesman said at the launch: “The academy provides a live training environment that combines salon based training with real work experience.

“All candidates that pass through the academy will have the have the opportunity to gain SQA accredited qualifications so that they can continue with college courses or apprenticeships.”

The beauty school will be open to the local community around Barrhead.

Operations manager James Ward said: “It is our belief that we can create a social enterprise that can sustain the training and employment of young adults who are looking for a chance to make their way in the world.

“We have created nine new jobs since we opened our doors 12 months ago and this is something that we hope to re-create at the Hair & Beauty Academy.”

In its first year of operating, the training centre helped more than 700 young people in a number of programmes centred on horticulture and landscaping.

From its base in Rouken Glen park the YES team say they have also worked on local community projects to an equivalent of £30,000 worth of labour .

Geoff Leask, Chief Executive at Young Enterprise Scotland praised the centre’s success, saying: “It really is an exciting and dynamic period for Young Enterprise Scotland with the expansion of the academy.”

He added: “James and the staff based at Rouken Glen have worked really hard over the last year and produced some fantastic results.

“We look forward to supporting more young people through this innovative scheme into secure employment.”

The opening event took place in the new premises where guests were shown round and talked through the plans for this branch of the academy.