Beauty industry to undergo skills facelift

Keeping trim: There remains a strong local demand for beauty and wellness services in Singapore even as Covid-19 has led to many challenges. — The Straits Times/ANN

The country’s beauty industry is getting a skills facelift with the launch of a new framework to help more than 13,000 workers in the industry to plan their career and development pathways.

Speaking at the launch of the Beauty Services Competency Framework yesterday, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling said that it will serve as a single point of reference for businesses and employees alike to strengthen training capabilities in a sector that has “incredible growth potential”.

Noting that the beauty services industry is growing at a rate of 10% year-on-year, she said that there remains a strong local demand for beauty and wellness services here even as Covid-19 has led to many challenges.

“With strength in consumer demand, there is potential for new job opportunities, ” Low said.

Under the framework, career progression pathways are now clearly mapped out, covering 45 job roles across five tracks.

For example, an apprentice in the nail services industry could eventually move up the ranks to become a manicurist, a nail artist and, if suitable, eventually a management role.Employees already in the industry can therefore look to it on how they can upskill to stay relevant, while interested new entrants can use the information to gain a better understanding of the sector and the specific skills required of various roles.

Meanwhile, business owners can use the framework to guide decision-making in recruitment and talent management, among other things.

In her speech, Low brought up the example of Jamie Lai, a senior barber and trainer at a chain of men’s grooming salons.

Using the framework, she identified coaching skills as an area of improvement, and went on to complete a course at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) to be a certified barber trainer.

As her company is also applying to be an approved training centre within the institute, she will hopefully be coach to not just new barbers where she works, but also to students at ITE as well.

The framework was unveiled by the Beauty Services Alliance – also launched at the same event yesterday – which brings together five trade associations in the industry.

The alliance serves as a unifying body to represent the interests of close to 700 enterprises, and aims to formulate initiatives to drive the growth of the beauty services industry. — The Straits Times/ANN