An evaluation of beauty and hair care education at vocational schools

The qualifications of students who undergo technical and vocational education and training play a significant role in terms of the impact on the economic and industrial development of a country. In this connection, studies aimed at training a qualified workforce in technical and vocational secondary education in North Cyprus are ongoing. To achieve success in vocational training in modern societies, students should be directed according to their abilities from the pre-school period until they graduate from high school. While students are oriented towards the fields they are interested in, there should be collaboration between the student, the family and the school. The education and training programs devised for “hairdressing” and “cosmetology” in the field of Beauty and Hair Care under North Cyprus MEYAP (Mesleki Teknik Eğitimi Yapılandırma Projesi-Project for Structuring Technical and Vocational Education and Training) are of significance in terms of providing employment, training a qualified workforce, employment of a workforce to meet the needs of the sector, acceptance of the work force into the relevant university departments and contribution of this much needed work force in the personal services sector. The inclusion of the field of Beauty and Hair Care within the scope of MEYAP and the design of programs in a modular way by taking into account the specific sectoral needs would introduce a new approach and standards to the vocational education and training system, which trains qualified personnel for this vital sector for the North Cyprus economy. The Framework Teaching Program pertaining to the field of Beauty and Hair Care is aimed at enabling students to acquire the basic knowledge and skills related to the field and its subspecialties as well as training individuals with the necessary professional qualifications who are creative, open to criticism and who can adapt to innovation and change, can communicate effectively with people around them, can establish goals and take the initiative to achieve those goals. This research, which is a descriptive study, analyzes the beauty and hair care education at vocational schools in North Cyprus. A questionnaire with 6 open-ended questions has been used for this study, in which the participants were vocational school teachers. The aim of these questions was to identify the personal characteristics of the teachers and students, the teaching–learning environment, the adequacy of such environments, how assessment and evaluation is performed and whether the education and training is conducted in an applied format or not. Document analysis has been employed to find answers to the first two research questions and face-to-face interviews were administered for the others.