Firm graduates 24, advocates investment in technical training

Founder of Spectrum Beauty Academy and Bnatural Spa, Pamela Bello Olatunji, has said Nigeria needs to look into the beauty industry for job creation and invest more in technical training.

Olatunji made the call during the graduation ceremony of 24 persons from the beauty school in Ilupeju, Lagos. She said: “This is a job that Nigerians need but Nigeria do not have the kind of expertise to work in my spas which is the reason why I decided that I could give the country that expertise and, that’s why I opened the school.

“To be a qualified and certified as a beauty therapist in today’s world, you need to go to beauty school, you need to spend at least 1,700 hours of study. So, it has to be a school that can give you that kind of study. Anything less is substandard. The prospect in the beauty industry is enormous. During the economy recession in the UK, the beauty industry was the last to go down’ and it was also the first to come up when things got better, and that tells you that there must be something resilient about the industry. It has a staying power which many company do not have.”

She pointed out that the dearth of beauty expertise in the country remains the bane of the sector, saying, “for instance, you cannot have a school certificate and be teaching in a university, it means that if we are operating at a level where we are operating, the kind of certification we are offering, the teachers have to be certified to be able to teach students.

“All over the world, they give scholarships to people to go to school so that they can generate income for themselves so, the Nigerian government must also do it to Nigerians willing to learn and be part of the sector.”