The Grantley Adams Memorial School has launched a community-based initiative aimed at empowering young girls.
The Blackman’s, St Joseph, school is inviting members of the public one Saturday of each month to its salon to be pampered.
The services include pedicures, manicures and natural hairstyles.
During the launch of the programme on Saturday at the school, cosmetology instructor Gulian Trotman said it would help the senior girls hone their skills and develop a level of professionalism needed to run their own business.
“I think it’s important because we’re trying to hone the girl’s entrepreneurial skills and it’s teaching them to communicate with clients, as well as receive information from their clients pertaining to their service given and so on as well as give back information and aftercare advice and stuff to their clients. Most of them want to further their education in this particular skill set and they want to become entrepreneurs. So it would be very important for them to have this exposure,” she said.
There are about 50 students enrolled in the cosmetology programme, which is being offered at the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) level.
Trotman, who has been teaching at the school since 2003, said that cosmetology has played a crucial role in the development of several young people’s lives, noting that most of the students who passed through the course have successful businesses.
The teacher added that the school also wanted to hold the salon day at least two Saturdays each month in the future.
Upper fifth student Khadija Applewhite said the programme has been beneficial to her and she was making a lot of progress where her skills were concerned adding that she hoped the salon day would help to paint the school in a positive light.
The 18 year-old said she wants to be a nurse and she also wants to have her own salon, as a side business.
Her colleague Kiara Gibson, who is also in upper fifth form, said cosmetology helps her express her creativity and she gets to learn about the different types of hair people have.
The 17 year-old wants to own her own salon in the future, noting that she liked the idea of making women feel beautiful and confident in their looks. (SZB)
