New salon opens up career opportunity for Blairgowrie High School pupils

A new career in hairdressing has been opened to pupils due to a unique partnership between UHI Perth and Blairgowrie High School.

After a year of development and hard work, a new hairdressing salon was designed and installed to allow pupils to learn within the school grounds. The first group of Skills for Work National 5 Hairdressing pupils have now started their course, delivered in-school by the UHI Perth Hairdressing team as part of the Schools/College Partnership initiative which enables young people to access UHI Perth courses as part of their school timetable.

Lesley Hill, former Depute Head Teacher at Blairgowrie High School, said: “This hairdressing salon partnership project was dreamed about for several years, but only became an exciting reality in the last year.

“A major issue for our young people has always been transport and travelling to UHI Perth and back without them missing lessons in school. So, being able to have a salon here and then the expertise of UHI Perth staff coming out to deliver the course is something that we’ve really embraced. For young people this means they are now able to develop skills in hairdressing onsite with us, and that will act as a great taster for them if they are thinking of going on and taking this as a full-time course at UHI Perth or looking at going straight into employment.

“This project is a perfect example of blended learning experience for young people and a partnership between school and UHI Perth to give young people the skills that they need, with expert delivery onsite as part of their everyday curriculum.

“This is the first example of partnership working that we’ve been able to achieve in Blairgowrie High School and I hope that this is the beginning of a new relationship where not only hairdressing is delivered in high school but may be something that we can offer in other areas as well.”

Sharon McGuire, Schools College Partnership Lead, added “UHI Perth are delighted to have been able to support this hairdressing development in Blairgowrie High School. To be able to take learning directly to young people in Blairgowrie has made a huge difference within the school. The pupils are very much enjoying working in the fantastic industry-standard salon and we are already discussing widening the hair and beauty offer now we have this super facility within the school.”

More info on the Schools College Partnership can be found here.