Beauty Industry Employment and Training: Young People
Monday, 12 October 2026
Contributions
Dan Aldridge (Weston-super-Mare) (Lab)Labour
8. What steps his Department is taking with the beauty industry to help provide accessible routes into employment and training for young people.
The Minister for Employment (Andrew Western)Labour
The Government are determined to help more young people to build careers in sectors such as hair and beauty by investing an additional £2.5 billion through the youth guarantee and the growth and skills levy. Whether a young person chooses hair and beauty or another sector, we want them to have the skills, training and support they need to succeed, including through the funding of apprenticeship training costs for eligible under-25s who have started their apprenticeships since August this year.
This week is British Beauty Week, a great opportunity to celebrate the fantastic and fast-growing beauty and wellness businesses that we have in this country, especially in towns such as Weston-super-Mare, where businesses like Sacred Willow, founded by Kerry and Simon Lamerton, and Luceo Lounge, founded by Lisa de-Laune, keep our high streets alive and our economies going, and generally make people feel much better about themselves. Will the Minister give some more information about the support his Department is providing, especially for young people through the youth guarantee, to ensure that small businesses in areas like mine benefit as much as possible?
I welcome my hon. Friend’s support for British Beauty Week and join him in celebrating the local beauty and wellness businesses that are helping to drive growth and create opportunities for young people, particularly the two he has highlighted in his constituency. I encourage his local businesses to look at the incentives offered by not just the jobs component of the youth guarantee, but the youth jobs grant and the £2,000 payment to small and medium-sized enterprises that hire a young apprentice, all of which can support them in giving opportunities to young people in Weston-super-Mare and beyond.
Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)Liberal Democrat
There has been a 30% reduction in the number of apprenticeships in the hair and beauty sector over the past five years, one reason being that the number of people employed has plummeted, with many people being forced into false self-employment due to increased costs. In addition, the number of providers working in the sector is at a critical level. My constituent Mike, who owns Mike Taylor Education with his wife Emily, told me of a young man travelling from Kent to Dorset every week to follow his level 2 barbering course, because there were no courses anywhere else. Will the Minister meet me and sector representatives to talk about how we could reverse this decline?
Clearly, I would be very happy to meet the hon. Lady. That sort of distance is unfortunate, and I am sorry if that is the experience of her constituent or, indeed, their apprentice. As I say, I am very happy to meet her to discuss it further.
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5413431.