New beauty school opens in Brisbane today with aim of filling industry’s job shortage

Melanie Burgess, Careers deputy editor, The Courier-Mail - article link here

VOCATIONAL education in Brisbane is getting a makeover, with a new beauty school officially opening today in the CBD.

Employment and skills minister Michaelia Cash and Vogue editor-in-chief Edwina McCann will unveil The French Beauty Academy’s Adelaide St campus, which offers courses spanning makeup, lash and brow work, tanning, massage and advanced dermal treatments.

Academy patron Sherelle French said there was a shortage of industry-ready beauty therapists, with many students at the school’s Gold Coast campuses snapped up before they graduated.

More than 1200 new beauty therapy jobs were forecast to be created in Australia each year, according to Federal Government modelling, with the occupation’s workforce expected to grow by 17 per cent between 2018 and 2023.

Zoey Dennis, Olivia Jamieson, Anya Liu, Kimberley Froome and Charisse Cowburn are excited about the opening of The French Beauty Academy in the Brisbane CBD. Picture: David Clark

Currently, about a fifth of beauty therapists were based in Queensland.

Ms McCann said there were “fantastic career opportunities” in the beauty industry and many trained workers went on to run their own business.

“People spend more now on their personal appearance and that is driving overall growth,” she said.

“There is a huge growth in laser clinics and cosmeceutical trends … there are nail bars in every shopping centre around the country (and) five years ago we didn’t have brow specialists.’’

The French Beauty Academy’s new Brisbane campus features six classrooms, catering to more than 300 students, and an additional six classrooms will be opened next year.

Manly’s Cherisse Cowburn, 17, and Ferny Grove’s Olivia Jamieson, 19, are studying the Dual Diploma of Beauty Therapy and Screen and Media and hope to work on runway shows and films and to start a cosmetic line, respectively.

Ms Cowburn said her family and friends were extremely supportive of her decision to pursue a career in the beauty industry.