TAFE SA hairdressing student Molly Pepper claims salon training not regulated

HAIRDRESSING student Molly Pepper fears she will be let down again by TAFE SA if her qualifications are not recognised.

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HAIRDRESSING student Molly Pepper fears she will be let down again by TAFE SA if her qualifications are not recognised.

Ms Pepper, 19, of Blakeview, said she was already behind in her skills after her former employer did not provide her training as required by TAFE SA.

Over the past 18 months, Ms Pepper thought she was doing salon training approved by TAFE SA, but none of her work was properly assessed by her former employer based on her Certificate III course requirements.

LET DOWN: Molly Pepper is among the 1300 TAFE SA students left in limbo. Picture: MATT TURNER

“I would’ve needed to do all the practical in the salon and have the skills signed off but he (the former employer) had never gone through training or assessment with me,” she said.

“I just wasn’t really progressing. I wasn’t being marked off anything.”

Ms Pepper had a meeting with TAFE SA officials in September and found out how far behind her skills were.

She felt she had been let down by both her ex-employer and TAFE SA, which she claimed did not regulate the course properly and follow up her training at the salon.

“It’s disappointing that I’ve put in so much effort as a third-year student, going into fourth year, but not being able to do what third years can do,” she said.

“I’m worried about getting a job.

“ I did two weeks at another salon and they were quite shocked at the level of skills I was at.”

Ms Pepper quit the salon she was working at and went back to TAFE full-time to catch up on her studies.

Certificate III in Hairdressing is one of the 16 courses found to have shortcomings in an Australian Skills Quality Authority report.

Fourteen are no longer allowed to take new enrolments.

“I’m worried my qualifications are not going to be recognised, that they are not going to mean anything,” Ms Pepper said.