In India, anyone can launch a beauty academy

DEEPA loves experimenting with her hair. She also indulges in pampering her skin at skin care centres. Now the 28-year old aims to turn her hobby into a profession by gaining skills as a ‘professional make-up artist.’ She is looking for contact details of renowned skin centres to see which of them offerisuitable courses at a reasonable fee.

Deepa understands that there is no dearth of institutes. A lot of beauty players, who have earlier been into the core business of providing services like hair styling and spa, skin treatments, nail, hand and feet beautification, are now venturing into training and education. All of them are ready to enrol her, but she prefers a course that is quality-certified. As a student who is well aware, she has been going through websites of various academies for an approved institute, but has been disappointed so far.  

Lack of regulation
The beauty industry being an unregulated sector doesn’t have answers to many of her queries. Though the segment falls under vocational skills sector, rules guiding them are oblique. So, as on date, any beauty player or a businessman can start an institute and even franchise it, without being scrutinised and approved by any governing body. One of the things Deepa wants to know, is whether an existing government-approved centre exists somewhere.

Hari Menon, CEO, IndiaSkills, a joint venture of Manipal Education and City & Guilds, UK, says, “There are no regulatory rules in the current vocational skills scenario and as of now there are no mandatory approvals or accreditation necessary in India.” He further adds, “The (existing) National Council for Vocational Training or Directorate General of Employment and Training is more of a framework that a vocational training provider can opt for if deemed necessary,” he says. This means that there are no obligatory rules for a player, experienced or new ones. There are no entry-level checks.

That doesn’t come as very good news for students. While regulations may take their own time to be framed and implemented, it is advised that students do their due diligence in choosing an institute. Two most important aspects of the courses that should be carefully assessed are fees and validity of academic partnerships. Fees are determined by the training providers and can often be prohibitive. So students need to assess how much value they will be able to derive from each rupee spent. Validity and professional value of the academic partnerships that training providers advertise should be also ascertained and assessed. Let’s take a look at the affiliations and partnerships before moving on to the various programmes.

Affiliations and partnerships
Students need to check if the collaborations that the training providers claim are for real or just a marketing gimmick. Careers360 examined the veracity of a few claims made by VLCC, an institute that provides training in a range of beauty treatment, based in Delhi-NCR.

What you see isn’t what you get

We found that VLCC’s comments on their overseas partnership were contradictory (details in the box below). While VLCC claims it has academic linkage with Doncaster College, UK, Doncaster denies any such partnership ever existed. VLCC’s counsellor, however, continues to maintain that the partnership does exist.

Slide #1 An email reply by the International Office administrator of Doncaster College, UK  categorically mentions that the college doesn’t have any partnership with VLCC. “The partnership never materialised...” says the mail. VLCC website, however, flashes Doncaster’s affiliation, Doncaster is in the know of existing contradiction

Slide #2 The head of International Operations, Doncaster College, UK Barbara Brodigan says that an agent in India wanted to develop the partnership (between the two institutes). An MoU was signed for sending students for level 3&4, but never materialised. Credit Transfer agreement  was not in the picture.

However, some institutes’ partnerships are not disputed. For instance, prominent player, Blossom Kochhar Aesthetic & Spa Academy’s affiliation with CIDESCO, a Switzerland-based accreditor exists and is acknowledged on the accreditor’s website. Kochar’s partnership with Make-Up Designory (MUD), a US-based company, also finds confirmation on the latter’s website.

Shahnaz Husain’s Academy and Habib’s Hair Academy haven’t linked up with any international player so far.Establishing the veracity of the claims of such partnerships is crucial for students aiming to gain academic advantage on a global level. Such linkages are meant to add credibility to the qualification and facilitate further education in the partner’s country and also at their worldwide centres.

Programme Approval
Currently no degrees are awarded by any training provider; so far the courses are limited to diploma and certificate offerings only. In the larger bouquet of beauty skills offerings, hair care is a significant business but Indian education system does not recognise hair styling as a vocational course. There is no accreditation system in place so far. “Professionals in this field have teamed up to frame training programmes on their own,” says Jawed Habib, a renowned hair-stylist and owner of Jawed Habib Academy.

IndiaSkills offers International Vocational Qualifications (IVQ) from City & Guilds, UK. It also uses customised versions in the course by designing, developing and fine-tuning programmes for the Indian market. Asked whether IndiaSkills require any validation from any Indian body, Hari Menon, CEO, says: “There are no mandatory rules and regulations for validation of the courses and Manipal Education is already in a joint venture with City & Guilds.”

With no official guidelines in place, students are at risk. They may not have access to any redress mechanism, apart from filing a court case. Menon, however, is optimistic. “Sector Skills Councils and National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework could lead to implementation of more formal structures and regulatory accreditation,” he says. Till such time, students need to use their own sense of judgement combined with researched information.

Post your queries and comments below this column, and Careers360 correspondent Urmila will respond.