Mentoring Tips for Trainers
and Salon Owners
Prepared for HITO by
Dr. Chris Holland,
Work & Education
Research & Development Services
16B Parnell Rd, Parnell, Auckland.
June 2012
1
Contents
1.0
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 3
2.0
What is Mentoring? ..................................................................................................... 4
3.0
Establishing an effective mentoring approach............................................................. 5
3.1
Mutual respect ....................................................................................................................... 5
3.2
Clear goals ............................................................................................................................. 6
3.3
Accessibility........................................................................................................................... 8
4.0
The Training Session.................................................................................................. 9
4.1
Share your own experience ................................................................................................ 10
4.2
Ask open questions .............................................................................................................. 10
4.3
Learn about difficulties......................................................................................................... 10
4.4
Help with learning tools ....................................................................................................... 10
4.5
Give positive feedback ........................................................................................................ 11
4.6
Check for understanding ..................................................................................................... 11
5.0
Collective mentoring for apprentices ......................................................................... 11
6.0
Afterword: Who’s Mentoring you? ............................................................................ 12
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1.0 Introduction
If you are a Salon owner or trainer you will know how satisfying and effective it is to guide
and develop young employees to fit the culture, work patterns and expectations of your
Salon and its clients, and to succeed as a fully trained hairdresser. You will also know that a
lot of support will be needed from you and your senior staff, as the apprentice settles into
what is likely to be her / his first job, and practises and gains skills in both on and off-job
learning. The benefits are two way: the learning support you establish for the apprentice is
crucial to the salon’s retention of the apprentice and to her / his professional success.
HITO is one of the few Industry Training Organisations that strongly supports the
identification of trainers within the workplace to train apprentices one-to-one in their on-job
learning. This arrangement is written into HITO’s apprenticeship agreement with Salons. As
a result, training is at the forefront of the apprenticeship relationship and is generally very
well monitored by salon owners and trainers. Often, in fact, the salon owner takes on the
responsibility for training as well as for salon management.
Salon owners and trainers report that young apprentices tend to need personal and social
support as well as learning support as they try to cope with adult social and work
relationships, financial responsibilities, study, and perhaps, living away from their families.
This has been found to be true for other trades - much more than narrow “training” is
required if young apprentices are to become qualified tradespeople. They need holistic
guidance if they are to complete their apprenticeships successfully – they need mentoring.
In salon observations and discussions with salon owners, trainers and apprentices1 it is clear
that salon owners and trainers not only recognise this need to mentor their apprentices, but
the already try to include mentoring as part of their training role. The inclusion of mentoring
into training activities:
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
Improves the rate of qualifications completions among apprentices

Supports a stronger learning culture in salons

Improves staff loyalty and retention

Builds a real competitive advantage for the salon

Accelerates the development of leadership capabilities in the trainer / mentor
Exploratory work was carried out in Gisborne and Hamilton Salons.
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If you are a salon owner or trainer we hope these guidelines will assist you to provide high
quality mentoring support for apprentices alongside training, and to find ongoing support for
yourselves and your trainers in this work.
2.0
What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is a supportive relationship
between a caring individual who shares
his / her knowledge, experience and
wisdom with another individual who is
ready and willing to benefit from this
exchange.
Although
mentoring
and
training are often seen as essentially the
same, the emphasis is slightly different:
mentoring activities focus on whole person
development (without which training may
be hindered) while training focuses on
vocational skills and abilities.
The scope of mentoring practice may include:

pastoral care (wellbeing, relationships, safety)

cultural support (coping in a new / unfamiliar environment)

advocacy (accessing more resources, training, support)

vocational skill support (help to achieve learning goals on and off-job)

support with time management (help with a study plan)

literacy / numeracy support (help with unclear documents, numeracy tasks)

building motivation (when it all feels too much for the apprentice)

support with employment issues (rights and duties, workplace relationships)
In hairdressing, mentoring activities are a recognised part of on-job apprentice training
practice, apparently more so that in male dominated trades (although insufficient research
has been carried out to confirm this). Salon owners report that much of the support they find
themselves giving is pastoral care – “keeping an eye on emotional things” and providing
support with life issues such as relationships and pregnancy.
“It’s such a personal thing – you are building this person.”
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3.0
Establishing an effective mentoring approach
Sound management and authority are necessary for ensuring that the salon runs smoothly.
Employees, including apprentices, have a duty to behave appropriately in the salon and the
owner has a right to expect this. Yet in terms of effective mentoring, people in positions of
authority can actually inhibit the development of trust and the disclosure of personal and
learning issues.
“I could go to my trainer but I couldn’t go to my boss”
If training support is undertaken by the owner, separating out your position of authority from
a training and support role can be difficult. For this reason, it is helpful if you can keep the
training / mentoring role separate from the employer role by giving the training role a senior
who has no direct authority over the apprentice.
“I do find it hard to tell people what to do then to sit down at the end of
the day and say ‘how are you feeling?’ “
The main things you need to consider before you get started with your apprentice are these
cornerstones of good mentoring:

Mutual respect: a mutually driven agenda; power and authority are not used

Clear goals: specific development areas are monitored and reviewed

Accessibility and structure: face-to-face meetings are frequent, regular, scheduled
3.1
Mutual respect
Why is it important to establish mutual respect? Because learning is a relationship, and will
flounder if respect is not two-way. At the outset, you will discuss and agree on acceptable
conduct in the relationship. For instance, you might agree the following:

To give each other 24 hours’ notice if either of us cannot attend the training time

To keep personal and social information confidential unless permission to share is
given
This and other examples of mutual respect go a long way to establishing trust.
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Setting the training agenda should also be a mutual undertaking. The agenda for training
should be set by both the trainer and the apprentice, allowing opportunities in each session
for the apprentice to share personal, social and learning issues as part of a holistic approach
to meeting on-job training requirements. Inviting apprentices to share their issues, listening
to them and building a personal plan of action shows respect, builds trust, and prevents
training breakdowns later.
In a comfortable environment, confidence gets built
Training can also break down when cultural diversity is not respected – Maori and Pasifika
apprentices often struggle with trades cultures, especially if there no understanding of
culturally different approaches to learning (e.g. collectivism vs individualism). Whatever the
cultural background of the apprentice, even moving from school to work or from one salon to
another can be a culture shock.
3.2
Clear goals
Apprentices will have long-term goals such as achieving qualifications, owning a salon or
working overseas. Within these, a number of medium-term goals should be able to be
identified that help steer them towards their long-term goals. These might include
successfully completing the first year off-job course, getting on with co-workers and
managing all first year apprentice tasks. Now short-term objectives need to be set that are
specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound (SMART). Some mutually agreed
and measurable objectives for “successfully completing the first year” might include:

Attending all off-job course sessions

Attending all salon training sessions

Completing course assignments

Keeping the training log book up to date
 Practising to achieve competence in at least one new task per week
 Asking for and acting on feedback at least once a week
Consider how you would both measure success in each of these objectives. Consider also,
how you would support your apprentice in ways that empower him or her.
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Figure 1 below contains a case study of Tanja, a first year apprentice. You may be able to
identify potential personal, social and learning issues for Tanja. Can you how you would
learn more and support her?
Figure 1: Tanja
Tanja is a first year apprentice. She has moved from Taumranui to Auckland three
months ago. She left Taumranui because there were no work opportunities and now
lives with her aunt in Mt. Roskill. Last week, with the help of her aunt, she was employed
in a busy salon in Onehunga. She hasn’t yet made any friends in Auckland. She misses
her family and boyfriend and spends hours on skype talking to them at night.
Her trainer at work is Jennie, who is also the salon manager. She’s friendly but really
busy. On the second day Jennie sat her down with the training manual and training log.
She talked about a lot of things, then left Jennie to read for half an hour. Jennie doesn’t
remember anything about when and how she should fill the logbook in, and she has no
idea what all the abbreviations mean. She’d like to see what other apprentices write in
the log books. She is too scared to ask Jennie, and wants instead to ask Karen, who
she thinks is a second year apprentice.
Questions:
What potential personal, social and learning issues can you identify?
What questions might you ask to gather more information?
What goals might you and Tanja set for her to work towards?
How would you both measure improvement towards those goals?
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3.3
Accessibility
HITO ensures that every apprentice has access to workplace-based trainers who provide
frequent, face-to-face, one-to-one on-job training. But it is also important that training
sessions are regular and scheduled in advance, so that apprentices can prepare for each
session.
Sessions need to be structured in some way, even if you are aiming for sessions to be
friendly and informal. Structure ensures that learning is recorded and reviewed, that areas of
concern are addressed and that you are both moving forward. In order to structure the
training session effectively, you will need a notebook with columns for meeting dates, issues
and comments. You will need to include a mutually devised ‘to do’ list.
Make sure you block out your time so that you are available to the apprentice when you said
you would be. As well having access to you, the apprentice may wish to draw on other older
and more experienced people in the salon. This will take some of the load off you as the
trainer. When mentoring is shared in this way it is known as “distributed mentoring”.
While distributed mentoring is generally considered beneficial, some trainers believe it is not
advisable to have a number of tradespeople responsible for training, as conflicting advice
could be confusing to apprentices. Problems arising from conflicting advice given by other
employees can be addressed if you, as primary trainer, establish that you have the final
sign-off and therefore the final say. In one salon, distributed mentoring was structured
effectively in a “1-up” formation: a third year trained and supervised a second year, and the
second year did the same for the first year. Hairdressing apprentices found it valuable to be
trained by someone who had only recently become a senior, as this kept the training
relevant to current knowledge. All training was overseen by the trainer with sign-off
responsibility.
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You may also draw on the support of families (especially if you are in a rural community) to
wrap
holistic
support
around
the
apprentice.
Families
usually
see
hairdressing
apprenticeships as a big opportunity for their young people, and therefore want them to
succeed. Families may be able help with pastoral care, time management, building
motivation and employment issues.
Finally, you can utilise local assessors to better understand what you should prepare
apprentices for, and you can also keep in touch with the polytechnic tutor to better
understand changes in skills teaching.
4.0
The Training Session
Many salons select a period in the week when the salon is likely to be the quietest, and
make that the regular weekly training time. Others are more ad hoc: whenever there is a
quiet period, the trainer takes the opportunity to teach the apprentice something new. An
ideal training situation is to have a regular time allotted (such as Wednesday afternoon) so
that the apprentice can prepare for the session, but also to allow for incidental training to
take place when an opportunity presents itself.
We have a notice on a board in the back of the shop about upcoming training
sessions, what apprentices are doing (e.g. finger waves, razor cutting, foiling).
I would prefer formal, set times of training, and set amount of times for
training.
Training can be “trainer-centred”, where the trainer controls the time and talk, and
demonstrates while the apprentice observes. This is sometimes very effective, but as the
following list (provided by apprentices of issues in their first year) shows, a more holistic
strategy is needed:
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
Confidence

Managing the bookwork

Understanding and achieving qualifications

HITO training log book

Managing a range of tasks

Time management for study

Motivation to study, and to continue the apprenticeship

Financial concerns

Personal issues
The following strategies will help you to support your apprentice effectively:
4.1 Share your own experience
The apprentice is likely to feel more comfortable with trainers who show empathy for the
position they are in. One trainer had this to say about the importance of trainer-to-apprentice
disclosure.
I always let my [learners] know about [my own literacy difficulties]
because I think it’s important that they feel comfortable that if they can’t
spell well, they can still do well, and it’s not about being dumb, cos look
where I am.
4.2
Ask open questions
Open questions start with “How...?” “Can you tell me about...?” and “Why...?”.
Useful
information about apprentice thinking can be given in response to these questions. In
contrast, closed questions beginning with “What...?” and “When...?” or “Did you...?” tend to
get short answers.
4.3
Learn about difficulties
Confident apprentices will talk to you about problems they are having without being given an
opening to do so. Less confident apprentices (and first year apprentices mostly fall into this
category), will need to be encouraged to speak up. Using disclosure and open questions
may help get to problems apprentices are having. Raising some known common difficulties
for apprentices and then asking the apprentice about their particular experience of these
difficulties, can draw out useful responses.
4.4
Help with learning tools
As a senior hairdresser and trainer, you may have developed tools (charts, diagrams) for
short-cutting or getting around difficult tasks (e.g. with colour-mixing). Share these with your
apprentice. Some apprentices may even be invited to develop their own tools or improve
existing tools for future apprentices.
I have on my wall a list of ratios cos we have had problems with that.
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4.5 Give positive feedback
Giving positive feedback can be difficult at times. Here is an example of how an issue might
be approached:

Describe the behavior specifically (When you answered the telephone you said “Hello,
Tanja speaking” nicely)

Invite apprentice to comment on how this greeting might be improved further

If improvement is not identified, make a suggestion (The customer needs to know that
they have reached the salon, so how about starting with something like “London Salon,
Tanja speaking”?)

Provide opportunities for Tanja to practice the greeting, incorporating the new
information in her own way.
4.6 Check for understanding
When your apprentice fails to adopt a new practice, there may be a number of reasons:

She / he was distracted / not listening

You were unclear

She didn’t understand

She disagreed
When you ask your apprentice to try a new practice, check that she / he has heard and
understood it, and whether she he sees any problems with carry it out. This gives the
apprentice an opportunity to speak up, and will save frustration for you later, if your advice is
disregarded.
5.0
Collective mentoring for apprentices
Apprentices often know one or more apprentices in their locality, from school, the
neighbourhood, off-job courses or from having worked with them in their current or other
salons. While this is more likely to be the case in rural communities, it is also true to some
extent in larger towns, because of apprentice mobility and off-job courses.
Some apprentices stay in touch with each other on facebook, or keep in contact by text. A
few met up regularly. This natural support arising through friends, block course peers and
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co-workers could form the basis of a more regular and formal meeting of apprentices, which
could be facilitated by salon trainers, perhaps on a rotational basis.
I went away alone to the block course. I didn’t keep in touch with the
girls in class [afterwards]. That’s the dumb thing. It would be good to
meet together.
Different year levels among apprentices at such meetings could only serve to provide
additional mentoring opportunities within the group. The group could:

Have a convenor for the group, who sets meetings and a monthly focus

Ensure every apprentice has a buddy

Keep notes on different topics and share them among the group

Review notes over time to create a booklet of useful tips for new apprentices
It’s important to set ground rules for group meetings, such as:
6.0

Information shared in these meetings are to be kept confidential to the group

Discussions are to be constructive, positive and respectful to members

The convenor should be notified in advance about no attendance or late attendance
Afterword:
Who’s Mentoring you?
A lot of responsibility for the in-salon training of apprentices is placed on your shoulders and
yet you may have no professional group or a single professional outside of the salon to
confide in when training work gets tough.
HITO offers a Train-the-Trainer course which may be able to help trainers recognise learning
barriers, ask skilful questions, provide effective responses and ensure open pathways to the
successful completion of apprenticeships.
It might also be helpful for you to meet with other trainers in your area so that you can
support each other’s work. Strengths and concerns in particular areas of mentoring could be
shared at these meetings. These guidelines could be used at meetings, and reviewed and
adjusted as more is learned and shared.
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