DANIEL BATEMAN NORTH Queensland hairdressers are crusading against changes to the industry that may see vital skills cut from the trade.
About 120 hairdressers from across the region met with the Hairdressing Federation of Queensland and Service Skills Australia in Townsville on Sunday to address industry concerns on how the new national hairdressing training package would affect them.
Some core units in the proposed package have been structured so that the new-age senior hairdresser would not be as multi-skilled in all areas of hairdressing as they are today.
After the meeting, Service Skills Australia took the hairdressers' concerns on board and will re-examine the package.
Hairdresser Josephine Heading, from Hair Worx salon in Charters Towers, was a driving force behind the campaign to make the industry aware of the changes and to understand the affect they will have.
"On a deb ball day, a new-age hairdresser can come in and say, 'sorry, I can't do upstyling because I didn't take it as an elective'," Ms Heading said.
"It's kind of like a mechanic saying, 'I can fix your motor, but I can't do the carburettor because I didn't do that as an elective'."
Ms Heading sent out a survey recently to more than 1300 hairdressers throughout four states urging them to comment on the package structuring, as many were not aware of the changes.
She said hairdressers needed core skills to be competent tradespeople.
"Hairdressers are not people who just sit around, talk and drink coffee all the time," she said.
"We are very hardworking professionals and use chemicals on people's skins. We expect the national training package to holistically cover the training in that area.
"Service Skills Australia has agreed to take on board these concerns and address them, for which the hairdressing industry is grateful."
Kennedy MP Bob Katter, who attended the meeting, said the changes to the hairdressing industry are similar to what happened in nursing.
"If the Government wants to proceed down this pathway, then it is being very foolish indeed," Mr Katter said.
"This is what happened in nursing.
"All these years of training these people spent will all go for nought because of all the new requirements."
Norris hair sales representative Craig Amos said the new package would not benefit the industry and many hairdressers may not want to continue in it if the changes went ahead.
"Employers won't want to take on trainees if they are trained this way," Mr Amos said.
"You can't become a specialist without being a GP first.
"In the same way, you can't be a superb colourist without doing the basics first.
"Trainees need to be put in a salon to learn everything."
Service Skills Australia CEO Jeanette Allen described the meeting as 'difficult', as the organisation felt it had held more than adequate consultation about the package.
"Hairdressers in North Queensland had expressed some dissatisfaction with elements of the package," she said.
"Service Skills Australia has agreed that they will take those issues on board and address them though normal consultation and development processes and we've been telling them that since September last year."
Source from Townsvillebulletin.news.com.au
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