Connor Doyle

Connor Doyle – Hair Level 2 Apprenticeship at Mane Salon, Leominster

Originally coming to Herefordshire & Ludlow College on the Level 2 Motor Vehicle course, Connor found though that this wasn’t the career path he wished to follow. After finishing that course, he moved on to the Level 2 Hair Professional Apprenticeship, working at Mane Salon, in Leominster. Currently, in the second year of his Level 2 apprenticeship and coming towards the end, Connor is thinking about his next steps.

“After finishing my Motor Vehicle course, I decided that I wanted to become a barber, but after speaking with Tash (owner of Mane Salon), she convinced me to go for the full Hair Professional route, as this would give me more flexibility down the line. It certainly made sense, rather than limiting me to half the potential customer base at a later date, so now as well as learning how to do traditional barber cuts, I’m also learning how to cut and colour women’s hair too.

Before deciding on the college, I considered a few different places to begin my apprenticeship, but after speaking to former students, and the assessors at the college, I felt this was the best place to start. It’s certainly not a decision I regret, especially going down the route of an apprenticeship. While you can learn in a classroom, I find I can learn so much more on the shop floor. Speaking to clients helps to build your social skills, which is an important part of the job. Watching other colleagues helps me to learn new techniques and methods too. One of the other obvious benefits is that I’m earning alongside building my skills, and at the end of my two years, I’ll have two years of experience too.

I would definitely recommend an apprenticeship route to others; you can learn from so many different avenues, not just a classroom, and it allows you to truly build your own style and skills. Now I just need to consider which apprenticeship I progress onto Hair Professional Level 3, or move on to the Level 3 in Barbering.”