2 minute read
Editors Letter
Editor’s Note
It’s no secret that our industry is experiencing a staff shortage never seen before.
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Clinics are advertising for quality positions up to 12 months with no results.
It seems that no matter how good your culture is, your values, your growth opportunities or incentives program, qualified Beauty Therapists are a dying breed in the Australian Beauty Industry.
But where have they all gone?
Laser Clinics? Nursing? Home Salons? Mindset of Gen Z? Just left all together?
We surveyed the industry for this issues feature “Where have all the Therapists gone?”, and found that Senior Beauty Therapists were in abundance 5 years ago. There was a plethora of qualified and willing staff able to fill positions before a Seek ad could expire. Now ads run for months on end (and have more than doubled in price too!) making the screening process more costly than the induction phase of employment.
It’s no secret that a skills gap exists in new graduates to our industry.
Our industry has progressed in leaps and bounds with technology and cosmeceuticals common place in today’s clinic. Yet the Diploma still teaches Makeup, manicures and Hot Waxing for legs as a priority over cosmeceutical science, laser light therapies, infection control and peels.
The modern-day Diploma-Qualified Therapist needs to be a mixture of industry ready, with the skills and knowledge of the Dermal focused industry even the most full service of clinics finds themselves in.
Traditional Beauty Therapies will always be at the heart of our industry. The future and the self-care these traditional services of waxing, massage, spray tans and nails provide, build loyalty and connection with our customers. We need our Therapists to be able to continue this tradition. The skills gap lies in the knowledge and qualification to perform peels and skin needling as well as effectively and accurately prescribe cosmeceutical ingredients and correlating skin concerns straight out of college. Does the Diploma of Beauty Therapy need to blend with an Advanced Diploma of Cosmeceutical Science to form one high achieve entry level education opportunity?
Would an apprenticeship of Beauty Therapy empower Therapists with a more diverse range of industry-ready skills learnt in a real-life environment?
Should a Diploma be 2 years full time and involve a more in-depth study into skin concerns, diagnostics, prescriptions and treatment modalities, including practical training in treating said skin concerns effectively?
What do you think the solution is?
I’d love to hear your thoughts over on the Beauty Biz Magazine Instagram and Facebook Pages @ beautybizmagaizne.
