Case Study - The Wish

The Wish hair salon in King’s Lynn was the winner in the Micro Business category (for businesses employing between 1 and 9 people) at the prestigious East of England Apprenticeship Awards 2009.

Chris Page, director of The Wish, said: “I chose the College of West Anglia to do our apprenticeship programme with because of the support the college staff offers my business. One of the benefits of using the college for our apprentices is that it gives them the opportunity to be away from the salon one day a week. This helps with their motivation and morale. It also allows them to broaden their knowledge in the relevant areas.”

He feels that having apprentices allows him to offer a better service to his customers: “I wouldn’t be able to operate my business without the 3 apprentices I currently employ. It allows us to operate at a more professional level as it gives the experienced stylists more time with their clients while the apprentices carry out other tasks to support them in a busy salon. It also allows us to do more training in-house, which is important as our apprentices are the employees of the future.”

His experience of working with the college has been a positive one: “I would absolutely recommend the training offered by the College of West Anglia, as it has been very beneficial to the running of my business. They are more geared up to the theoretical aspects of running a salon and have all the equipment to allow for top quality training.”