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February 2013
Ofsted Inspection

Cheynes Training experienced a ‘Two Day Notice’ inspection by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) during February.  Notice was given on Thursday 14 February (St Valentine’s Day) and the inspection took place from Monday 18 to Friday 22 February which, unfortunately, was half term week for many parts of England.

As with all inspections, Ofsted choose which locations are to be visited and during the event, seven inspectors spent a total of 31 inspection days over five days visiting 24 training centres plus a further six or seven other salons, they interviewed over 60 learners, spoke to numerous educators and Heads of Centre and to nearly all of the RTA team (a couple were abroad on holiday).

We would like to thank everyone who took part in the inspection; we had high praise from the Ofsted team about all of the locations they visited and although not everything went fully to plan (it never does) in every case the inspectors involved were full of genuine thanks for the help they received. We know this would have been the case whichever centres were visited.

Although we are not allowed to publish the results until the official report is released sometime in March, we can say that we are pleased with the result which was almost exactly as we expected. We also knew that the inspectors would be using the new 2012 Common Inspection framework which we have not yet fully embedded into all of our policies and procedures.

Of course we would have preferred a higher grade but we now know exactly what we have to do to achieve our target grade and I know that before too long we will share some of our ideas for moving things forward. We will also let everyone know when the official report from the inspection is published so it can be downloaded and viewed by your team.

January 2013
Ofsted Learner View Survey

As we reported back in November, most confusingly, there are two sets of official learner surveys currently taking place, the Learner Satisfaction Survey  and the Ofsted Learner Views Survey which is a new survey and we have emailed information about this directly to all Candidates in November and in December and we are about to email out again in January.

The Ofsted Learner Views is a very quick survey to complete and seeks the views of all Candidates about their apprenticeship programme. This is of particular importance to Cheynes Training because we are expecting an Ofsted inspection at some point over the next twelve months or so.

We, therefore, ask all salons and academies to urge their Candidates to go online and complete the short questionnaire.

Learner Satisfaction Survey

Each year, all Candidates on apprenticeship programmes are asked to complete a short survey about the training they receive. The survey is called the Learner Satisfaction Survey and it is conducted by Ipsos-Mori.

All learners who are currently on an apprenticeship programme, and those who have most recently completed, are asked to take part; they will have until late spring to complete the survey and, although this seems quite a long way off, we are keen to get everyone to complete the questions as early as possible and January seems an ideal time.

The survey is a very important way for salons, Cheynes Training and the Skills Funding Agency obtaining feedback on apprenticeship training. We will send out details in early January about how each Candidate can access the survey; this will be a step-by-step instruction sheet on how to complete the questions.

We urge you to encourage your Candidates to set aside a few minutes to complete the survey. We don’t believe in wasting anyone’s time and we would certainly not ask your apprentices to complete the survey if it was not important to us. We will publish the results of the Learner Satisfaction Survey on the Cheynes Training website and send out a copy as soon as the results are available. If you have any questions about the Learner Satisfaction Survey please contact Pam on 0131 476 7100 or email pam@cheynestraining.com

December 2012
Cheynes Training Photographic Competition 2012 - The Winner

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Cheynes Training 2012 Photographic competition is Jade Goss of P-Kai Hair in Peterborough. Many congratulations for a stunning look and also for winning an iPad 3 which will be presented to Jade very shortly. This year the standards were particularly high so our congratulations go to all who entered the competition, there can only be one winner but each and every entry deserves recognition for taking part – well done to you all. We hope that by taking part, all those involved
will gain encouragement to be involved in more artistic events.

We would like to extend a special thanks to our three judges for their role in this year’s competition, Bruno Marc of Marc Antoni,
Andrew Curtis, (or Curtis as he prefers) of The Hair Project, London and, last but not least, Ashley Kerr from the Cheynes Artistic Team. To view the winners of the 2012 competition, as chosen by our panel of judges, please click on the following link:  http://www.cheynestraining.com/detail-126

November 2012
Important Information About ERR Certification

Habia, the standards setting body for the hairdressing industry, have announced that they will no longer accept the Cheynes Training version of the ERR 9 ERR completion form (ERR Learning Agreement and Record of Achievement). Habia insist that centres must now complete the Habia version of the ERR 9 completion form in order to obtain ERR certificates. The new rule applies only to Candidates who commenced their apprenticeship programme after 27 June 2011. Unfortunately, if you have already completed the Cheynes Training version ready to send to Cheynes Training it will mean completing a new ERR completion form and sending this to us instead All future ERR forms must now completed using the HABIA form? This is available on the Cheynes Training website and a copy is also attached to this edition of e-Update. Please note, you may send the Habia form to Cheynes Training as soon as the ERR 9 module has been completed rather than wait until the Candidate has completed their apprenticeship framework.

October 2012
Ofsted Inspections Now Have Just Two Days Notice

Ofsted have commenced new inspection arrangements that include giving a school, college or training provider just two days notice of an inspection. Although schools and even colleges may find the new arrangements reasonably easy to manage, many work based training providers - including Cheynes Training - have expressed enormous concerns with the new arrangements which Ofsted agree will place greater difficulty on both providers and on the inspection team.

When inspection first started under the old Adult Learning Inspectorate, all providers had up to three months notice of the actual inspection date. When Ofsted took over the inspection role in 2006 the notice period dropped to three weeks, it has now fallen to just two working days. As an immediate result of this development, Cheynes Training has decided to formalise a ‘three term’ academic year from January 2013 onwards. As a result, Cheynes Training will be officially ‘open for business’ for a total of 40 weeks during the following term times during 2013:

Term 1 - Mon 7 January to Thu 28 March (Winter term) 12 weeks
Term 2 - Mon 15 April to Fri 26 July (Spring/Summer term) 15 weeks
Term 3 - Mon 2 September to Fri 29 November (Autumn term) 13 weeks

Centres are free to vary the above dates to suit their business needs, the needs of their team and the needs of their Candidates. Please be aware that Cheynes Training cannot guarantee RTA support outside of the above official dates; however, apart from the normal Bank Holidays (see below) the Cheynes Training head office in Edinburgh will remain open through the year.

New Year's Day Monday 1st January
Good Friday Friday 29th March
Easter Monday Monday 1st April
Early May Bank Holiday                     Monday 6th May
Spring Bank Holiday

Monday 27th May

Summer Bank Holiday Monday 26th August
Christmas Day Wednesday 25th December
Boxing Day Thursday 26th December

September 2012
Functional Skills

If you have any questions about the new arrangements email william@cheynestraining.com

The new Functional Skills programme that takes over from Key Skills in England goes live from 1st October 2012. From then onwards, all new Candidates registered on a Skills Funding Agency supported apprenticeship programme must complete Functional Skills as part of the framework. Key Skills can continue to be delivered for all those Candidates who are registered prior to 1st October however; the last date for registration for Key Skills is 30th September. As with any new initiative, there is bound to be a ‘learning curve’ however Cheynes Training has spent a great deal of time developing our strategy and preparing for Functional Skills. All RTAs have completed Functional Skills Level One and will be shortly starting Level Two. In addition, a series of Functional Skills workshops are being planned for centres to attend and these will be held in Manchester, London and in the South East of England over the next three months. More information about these workshops will be posted out to each Head of Centre.

August 2012
SFA to Cease Funding Barbering as a Second Apprenticeship

Barbering takes up an increasingly important share of the revenue of many of the salons we work with and, over the last two or three years, a number of salons in England have taken the opportunity to deliver barbering as a second award after their Candidates have successfully completed the intermediate hairdressing apprenticeship qualification.

Barbering has been available as a part funded option for Candidates who complete the hairdressing apprenticeship (NVQ Level Two) and then go on to complete an additional three or four barbering units. Credits from the hairdressing award make up the remaining units.

However, the government have announced they intend to withdraw support for this option from August 1st which means that no funding will be made available for new registrations for barbering as a second award from this date. We immediately appealed the decision and we were optimistic that we would overturn the ruling after receiving strong backing from Habia – the standards setting body for hairdressing.

We have now received the response to our appeal and, unfortunately, we have not been able to change the government’s view on this. As a result, no new funding for barbering as a second qualification will be available after August 1st although all those registered on the barbering programme before 31st July 2012 will continue to be funded.

Naturally we are deeply disappointed with this outcome. We believe that the additional barbering units play a vitally important role in building the level of skills and employability of young hairdressers today. Barbering skills also add significantly to the confidence of young people and play a major role in making them the commercial success they need to be.

We feel so strongly about this that we intend to continue to offer barbering as a second apprenticeship even though no government funding is available. Cheynes Training will cover the cost of registration and certification for the award which, ironically, is the position we were in prior to the government agreeing to part fund the barbering option.

July 2012
Top Judges Lined Up for the Cheynes Training Photographic Competition

We are delighted to announce the judges for the 2012 Photographic Competition; top names from the world of hairdressing, they are Bruno Marc from Marc Antoni, Andrew Curtis from The Hair Project and Ashley Kerr from Cheynes.

Bruno Marc took Marc Antoni to new heights by winning British Hairdressing Award’s Southern Hairdresser of the Year in 2007, winning again in 2011. In his role as Ambassador for System Professional, Bruno travels widely teaching product knowledge to journalists and hair skills to fellow hairdressers.Bruno leads the Marc Antoni Artistic Team worldwide and is manager of the Fellowship for British Hairdressing F.A.M.E. team which makes him the first person ever to undertake the role for three years. When Bruno is not travelling and sharing his expertise, he can still be found attending to his loyal client base on the cutting room floor of Marc Antoni's Henley-on-Thames salon.

Andrew Curtis, or Curtis as he is better known, has come a long way from his Edmonton roots. Following a short stint as an assistant at Trevor Sorbie, Curtis enrolled on the Vidal Sassoon fast track diploma in London’s Bond Street, where he obtained best student, best folder, best barber on completion of the course and best haircut at the final hair show! After working for two years at Vidal Sassoon, Curtis joined Mahogany, Mayfair becoming a senior stylist and working in TV teaching Mel B of the Spice Girls how to cut hair, and acting as Jason Merrell’s mentor for BBC drama “Cutting It”. Curtis met Paul Ames when he joined Toni and Guy Essensuals, London Wall, as Manager/Art Director and the two put their minds together and The Hair Project was born, a beautifully appointed hair academy in Shoreditch.

Ashley Kerr. A long term member of the Cheynes Artistic Team and currently heading up the Cheynes artistic development group, Team Fusion, Ashley has long been a key influence on the creative development of the Cheynes Team. With frequent involvement in shows and seminars both in the UK and abroad, Ashley has worked at the London Fashion Show and along with Paul Adamczuk, has frequently presented work on the Wella Trend Vision tour. Ashley also presents her work on courses at the Cheynes Academy and, for the Cheynes Team, also manages all of our artistic soirees. In between her busy schedule, Ashley remains grounded by running a very busy column in the Cheynes salon on Lothian Road, Edinburgh.

June 2012
Cheynes Training Photographic Competition

The 2012 Cheynes Training photographic completion will take place from September onwards and the top six places will be announced on 3rd December 2012 on the Cheynes Training website and in the December edition of e-Update. This is a terrific chance to get all of your young people even more motivated with their training.

The rules of the competition are:

  • Entry is free and open to all Candidates on the programme
  • Each Candidate will choose a model and complete either a cut and style or a colour and style
  • The Candidate must complete all work but advice may be sought from the salon team
  • Two digital colour photographs (front /side view) of the work must be e-mailed to Cheynes Training by Friday 26 October 2012 the closing date of the competition – Prizes (to be announced) will be awarded to the best work completed
  • The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence may be entered into

Please remember – it’s the hair the judges will be looking at - not the quality of the photograph – so please encourage all of your young Candidates to start searching for models and start practicing!

May 2012
Important New Rules on Apprenticeship Agreements

The Standards of Apprenticeships in England (SASE) rules are beginning to take effect and this is leading to a number of important changes that need to be made. One of the key requirements of SASE is the introduction of an Apprenticeship Agreement. This important article covers the requirement for an Apprenticeship Agreement.

The requirement for an Apprenticeship Agreement between an employer and an apprentice, under the SASE rules, came into force on 6 April 2012 so from that date, an Apprenticeship Agreement is required for all new apprentices. Some time ago we introduced a document entitled the Apprenticeship Learning Agreement that is signed by the salon, the apprentice and by Cheynes Training.

We will very shortly re-issue an updated version of this document; the name will change slightly, the new version will be simply entitled the Apprenticeship Agreement. This new document covers everything in the new SASE rules; however it needs to clearly be part of the Candidate’s contract of employment.

We therefore ask that you check your current employment contract (written statement of particulars) and to make absolutely certain your salon is meeting the new SASE requirements you should add an annex to the contract that states that the apprentice is undertaking a recognised apprenticeship which is linked to the hairdressing apprenticeship framework.

An example of this annex is attached and may be found on the downloads section in Employer Zone on the Cheynes Training website at http://www.cheynestraining.com/detail-26 For more information, contact Shona on 0131 476 7100 or at shona@cheynestraining.com

April 2012
Government to end IFL Role

It has just been announced that the government intends to hold a consultation on removing the regulations requiring teachers and trainers in vocational subjects such as hairdressing, to be registered with IfL.

The Institute for Learning was set up in 2007 and initially, the membership fees were paid for by the government. This ended amidst acrimony last year and IfL have since suffered much criticism because of the fees which now have to be paid by the individual member. Cheynes Training is one of very many organisations who have lobbied against IfL and over the years we have written to the prime minister, also the minister concerned, John Hayes, and various other bodies including City & Guilds, Habia, The Association of Learning Providers and IfL themselves. Clearly the pressure to change has had an effect on government thinking and we warmly welcome the consultation which we expect will result in IfL being disbanded. Please be aware, however, that at the moment the government have only announced their intention to remove the regulations, these will stay in force until after the consultation takes place and an official announcement is made. There is no guarantee, of course, that some of the other measures introduced such as the requirement for teaching qualifications will not be transferred to another body.

Safeguarding - Cheynes Responsibilities

This is a reminder that as part of our legal and contractual obligations Cheynes Training takes on the responsibility for ensuring that effective safeguarding of Candidates under the age of 18 is taking place.

We keep safeguarding issues under constant review and this is in keeping with our commitment that all those involved in a teaching, training or assessing role must sign up to our safeguarding ‘code of conduct’ arrangements. We will be contacting all salons during the next few weeks with more information on this.

If you need futher information on Safegaurding please contact Tricia at tricia@cheynestraining.com

March 2012
Scottish Apprenticeship Week

Scottish Apprenticeship Week will be held this year from May 21-25. It will celebrate the value that the Scottish Modern Apprenticeships bring to employers, to the economy and to the lives of the young people who are building a successful career from the skills they are learning during their apprenticeship.

Skills Development Scotland hopes that during Scottish Apprentice Week employers, training providers and all other partners will showcase their commitment to Modern Apprenticeships and encourage many more employers to participate in the programme. If you are looking for inspiration about how your organisation could get involved, we have a list of ideas on our Scottish Apprenticeship Week web page. Please let us know if you are organising an event so that we can promote it on the Cheynes Training website – please email it to us at enquiries@cheynestraining.com

February 2012
Apprenticeship Week

This year’s annual National Apprenticeship Week starts on Monday 6th February and a week-long series of promotions, events and celebrations are being planned throughout England.

The government clearly wishes to trumpet what it considers as its flagship vocational training programme and is determined to use this week to gain as much publicity for an initiative that it feels is clearly working. Although most observers would agree that apprenticeships are the way forward and concede that a good deal of funding is being put into developing the skills of young people via the apprenticeship initiative, there are many within the training sector are a little more guarded with their enthusiasm. For example, funding for each apprentice is being cut by a considerable amount over the next four years (although the overall budget is growing so there will be more apprenticeships available with reduced resources for each individual). Also, the government is falling into the same trap as all previous administrations by ‘tinkering’ with the system. Every new minister (the present one is John Hayes) really does like to put his or her stamp on the apprenticeship brand, this increases complexity. Of course, many of these changes are discarded by the next minister to come along. Never-the-less, apprenticeships are here to stay and we should rejoice in the fact that we have an incredibly strong system of developing young people available to our industry.

January 2012
Learner Satisfaction Survey

Each year the Skills Funding Agency conducts a very short on-line questionnaire survey with apprentices, this year they are calling it the Learner Satisfaction Survey and it starts in January and will be conducted by Ipsos-Mori. All learners who are currently on an apprenticeship programme, and those who have most recently completed, are asked to take part; they will have until late spring to complete the survey and, although this seems quite a long way off, we are keen to get everyone to complete the questions as early as possible and January seems an ideal time. The survey is a very important way of the individual salon, Cheynes Training and the Skills Funding Agency obtaining feedback on apprenticeship training. We will shortly write to you with individual details of how each Candidate can access the survey, this will be a sheet of paper that contains step-by-step instructions on how to complete the questions We urge you to encourage all of your Candidates to set aside a few minutes to complete the survey. We don’t believe in wasting anyone’s time and we would certainly not ask your apprentices to complete the survey if it was not important to us. We will publish the results of the Learner Satisfaction Survey on the Cheynes Training website and send you a copy as soon as the results are available. If you have any questions about the Learner Satisfaction Survey please contact Pam at head office on 0131 476 7100 or email pam@cheynestraining.com

December 2011
Habia Review

Habia, the standards setting body for the hairdressing and beauty industry have launched a comprehensive review of all hair and beauty qualifications.

The review takes the form of a questionnaire allowing those delivering hair and beauty qualifications across the whole of the UK to comment on every individual level and unit of NVQs and, in Scotland, SVQs. Please note that VRQs are also covered but these will be of little interest to most centres. The survey results will be used to inform the development of the content and structure of all hair and beauty qualifications in the near future. This is an excellent opportunity for educators and assessors involved with the delivery of NVQs (SVQs in Scotland) to influence the direction that hairdressing qualifications are taking and we urge you to take part in this important survey.

The questionnaire is available on the Habia website at www.habia.org/aosurvey Centres are not expected to complete the entire questionnaire, only the parts relevant to them. The Habia review ends on 31 January 2012.

November 2011
ERR - Changes for all New Starters England

 As previously reported, under the new Specification of Apprenticeship Standards in England (SASE) the mandatory Employment Rights and Responsibilities (ERR) part of the programme has changed and there are now nine parts to ERR rather than the eight parts previously required. Please note this only affects new apprentices registered after 27 June 2011. We are currently working at updating the ERR module on the Cheynes Training website so that it fully meets the new nine part requirement and the updated ERR will be available very shortly. In the meantime please could we ask all centres to not ask anyone registered on the programme after 27 June to take the ERR? Your help with this would be greatly appreciated. Candidates registered before 27th June 2011 will continue to provide the required evidence as at present by completing the ERR Visa and having this signed off by a qualified assessor.

October 2011
Cheynes Training Photographic Competition - The Winner

We are pleased to announce that Florence Unitt of Cullen & Co is the winner of the 2011 Cheynes Training Photographic Competition. Florence is a student at the Cheynes Training academy in London’s West End and her principle tutor, Jon Redman commented “Flo is a really talented young hairdresser and the look she did for this picture is really outstanding for a young person on an Intermediate Apprenticeship”. The judges for the competition, Leslie Spears, founder of Three-Six-Five Day Hairdressing and inspiration behind Joy Limited, distributors of Morrocanoil; Desmond Murray, top hair photographer and Hairdressing Journal’s 2009 Men’s Hairdresser of the Year; and Paul Adamczuk, International Creative Director for Cheynes, all awarded maximum marks to the winning entry. Florence will now be presented with an iPad 2 for achieving first place. Congratulations also to our two runners up, 2nd place in the competition went to Alex Carr from Cheynes, Edinburgh and 3rd place to Charlotte Connor from Coco’s, Maidenbower. Programme Director for Cheynes Training, William Howarth said “It is so good to see so much talent on the Cheynes Training apprenticeship programme and credit must go to not just the individuals concerned but their employers, their salon team and the people who train these extraordinarily gifted young people”. For more information please contact Tricia Thomson, Cheynes Training, on 0131 476 7100 or email tricia@cheynestraining.com

September 2011
Habia and 'The Big Conversation'

Habia has launched the most detailed and authoritative skills survey of the hair, beauty, nails and spa industries in over five years, with top prizes up for grabs for those who take part. The questionnaire for the Habia Skills survey is now live at http://www.habia.org/bigconversation/%20Habia’s surveys are the only ones to that are used by the government when it comes to training and funding issues, meaning your voice is heard by the decision makers. Please could you complete the survey and also pass on thelink to as many of your education team as is possible for them to complete too, respondents will be entered into our prize draw to win one of the prizes that Habia are offering. Habia have £1000 worth of skills team training up for grabs. You can follow Habia: The Big Conversation on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Habia_SSB%20or by using the hashtag #habiabigconversation

Alternatively, go to www.facebook.com/HabiaUK

August 2011
Requesting Payments from Candidates

We have had a very strong reminder from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) - and exactly the same rules apply to Skills Development Scotland (SDS) - about requesting payment from Candidates for any part of the apprenticeship programme. This is strictly forbidden under the terms of the contract that Cheynes Training holds with SFA (and SDS), so much so that the authorities have been known to withdraw funding from any centre guilty of this practice. It is for this reason Cheynes Training also includes a clause in our Training Agreement that makes it very clear that this is not acceptable practice. For further information on this subject contact William Howarth on 0131 476 7100 or by email at william@cheynestraining.com

July 2011
IFL Reduces Fees

In a widely expected move, the Institute for Learning (IfL) has announced it is reducing its fees. IfL now say that the £68 membership fee is now extended to cover a period of two years! Members are also given the opportunity to pay an annualised fee of £38.

Following discussions with trade unions, employers government, a number of agreements have been reached regarding membership of IfL. The full statement issued by IFL setting out the agreements reached and the progress is on the Institute for Learning website at http://www.ifl.ac.uk/

In the statement, IfL say that it has amended its fees for 2011/12 and 2012/13 on the basis of agreed transitional funding from the government, and will offer members an extension of the period covered by the £68 fee to two years for those members who have already renewed and paid their membership for 18 months from 1 April 2011. Other members who renew for the period up to 31 March 2013 have the opportunity to pay an annualised fee of £38 for 2011/12 and £38 for 2012/13, with a guarantee that the annual fee will not be higher than £68 in 2013/14. IfL are also introducing anew reduced fee level for individuals earning £16,000 a year or less.

IfL have also further clarified the scope of IfL membership with regard to ‘occasional teachers’ who are not subject to the regulations and therefore not required to be members of IfL. The definition of an ‘occasional teacher’ is anyone who is teaching for no more than 28 hours in a year (for example, 2 hours per week for no more than 14 weeks a year).

The definition of an associate teacher has also been clarified by BIS. Associate teachers are subject to existing regulations but it is recognised that there has been confusion about the definition of an associate teacher, and the scope may have been assumed by some to be wider than in fact is the case. 

 June 2011
Equality and Diversity 

We are delighted to announce the launch of our brand new Equality & Diversity on-line training module. Equality forms an increasingly important aspect of the apprenticeship landscape and here at Cheynes Training we were determined to bring an on-line version similar in approach to the ERR module. The result is a very easy to follow training module and we now request that all centres ask their educator teams and their Candidates to complete. To access the new E&D module, log onto the Cheynes Training website and navigate to the Candidate Zone. The E&D button is located on the menu bar near the top of the page; it is situated between Health & Safety and Every Candidate Matters. Simply click on E&D and this will take you straight to the introduction to the module. For more information on the E&D module, e-mail melissa@cheynestraining.com or call 0131 476 7100

May 2011
National Minimum Wages Rates for October

A new minimum wage rate was approved by the government when they accepted the independent Low Pay Commission’s (LPC) recommendations for this year’s National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates.

As a result, the following rates will come into effect on 1 October 2011:

  • The adult rate will increase by 15p to £6.08 an hour
  • The rate for 18-20 year olds will increase by 6p to £4.98 an hour
  • The rate for 16-17 year olds will increase by 4p to £3.68 an hour
  • The rate for apprentices will increase by 10p to £2.60 an hour

A complete breakdown of the new NMW rates may be found on the Employer downloads section.

Business Secretary Vince Cable has said that "More than 890,000 of Britain’s lowest-paid workers will gain from these changes. They are appropriate - reflecting the current economic uncertainty while at the same time protecting the UK’s lowest-paid workers.”

As announced in the Budget the Government will invite the LPC in its next report to consider the best way to give business greater clarity on future levels of the National Minimum Wage, including consideration of two-year recommendations. This could provide greater certainty for businesses, reduce risks and help them plan employment and investment decisions.