The winner of a competition which offered students an employment contract with a top local salon as first prize was announced at the Cornwall College Camborne campus recently.
Pitting hairdressing students at the college against each other in a series of challenges, the competition saw 20 teenagers take part, with 18 year old Jade Devereux from Falmouth taking the top prize of a year’s paid employment with Truro-based hair and beauty salon Inkfish.
The competition, which launched earlier this year with students’ cutting techniques being judged in the first stage, culminated with the students creating looks on models for a professional photo shoot and submitting the shots for judging by the Inkfish team.
Salon owner Vidette Chivers said: “As a team, we were really amazed by Jade’s ideas and her level of creativity. We were also impressed with the standard of her work, and she scored the highest over all three elements of the competition. The team are really looking forward to Jade starting with us when she finishes at college, and can’t wait to help her take her work to the next level.”
Jade, who completes her Hairdressing NVQ Diploma Level 2 at Cornwall College Camborne this summer, said: “I can’t believe I won! I didn’t think I would win, so it’s a nice surprise and I’m so pleased my hard work paid off. I really enjoyed it and I think it’s a great opportunity for students and the fact I now have a job to start in September is great. I’m so excited!”
Inkfish already employs nine apprentices through Cornwall College Camborne across both hair and beauty disciplines, but decided to offer full-time students a chance to kick start their careers.
Vidette commented: “The idea behind this competition was to bridge the gap between training at college and training in a salon. We really wanted to motivate and inspire the students and we’ve really enjoyed being involved with them. For us, it’s about being able to bring salon training into the college environment to enhance the students’ experience, so we’d love to come back and do some training with them, and run the competition again next year.”
Traci French, Hairdressing Programme Manager at Cornwall College Camborne, said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity for the students who have really seemed to enjoy it and have been inspired to work hard at each stage of the competition. We would like to thank Vidette and her team for the tremendous amount of effort and commitment they have dedicated to this, and the time they have spent in working with our students.”
Dave Linnell, Principal of Cornwall College, said: “Well done to Jade for winning such a fantastic prize and I wish her every success when she starts her career with Inkfish later this year. I would also like to congratulate both the hairdressing team at Cornwall College Camborne and the Inkfish team on holding such a successful competition and thank everyone involved for the tremendous amount of effort and dedication they have shown in getting this initiative off the ground.”
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