Posted 07/04/2022

Swan’s beauty taster day inspires career change for customer

Continuing to support customers with employment and training opportunities, Swan’s Customer Involvement and Community Development team held a beauty and aesthetics taster day at the King Edward Community Centre in Laindon, open to all customers

Led by a fully-qualified trainer, who is also a Swan customer, the session gave attendees the chance to explore career opportunities in the beauty industry, as well as learn about different therapies including eyebrow tinting, massage and Hopi ear candling.

Following the taster day, Claire, one of Swan’s customers, has decided to pursue a career in the beauty industry, with plans to sign up to further courses in the hope of gaining additional qualifications and working as a beauty and aesthetic practitioner.

However, for Claire, this taster day was not her first experience of beauty and aesthetics, already qualified to level two in beauty therapy, Claire has previously worked in a salon, although this was 10 years ago. Claire has since started her own printing and dressmaking business, but with her business suffering due to the pandemic, she was keen to get back into beauty, with the taster day reigniting her passion for it.

Claire said: “It is always a risk to start from scratch again and to build yourself up but going to the taster day reminded me of how much I enjoy it and that it was a happy stage in my work career. Just talking about it and being around other people, it definitely made my mind up to pursue my dream.”

Although beauty therapy was not new to Claire, the taster day allowed her to gauge how things have changed over the years.

Claire continued: “The industry has changed a lot in the past 10 years, so I thought I’d just have a look and see what was on offer. I know a lot of people now offer cosmetic enhancements and I was curious about that, the aesthetics side of it.

“The session was really informative. It went really quickly, but the tutor was very diverse, and answered all of our questions as she demonstrated different therapies.”

Claire, who’s been a Swan customer for 10 years, is now looking into holistic therapies and says that following the taster day, there are more courses she would like to complete.