THE Human Employment and Resource Training/National Service Training Agency (HEART/NSTA) Trust has been positively impacting the lives of unattached youth, through various programmes and initiatives.

Particularly through its College of Beauty Services, the agency has found an avenue for unattached young men and women to use their creative skills to earn. The college, which is one of eight institutions managed by the HEART/NSTA Trust within the region, provides levels three and four training in several beauty and wellness programmes, such as nail technology, general beauty therapy, massage therapy and spa therapy.

Director/principal of HEART College of Beauty Services Kaydia King-Newman shared that the college also offers several modalities of training. King-Newman was speaking at a JIS ‘Think Tank’ on Friday, August 26.

“At the HEART College of Beauty Services, apart from classroom instructions, we also offer an incubator programme where persons are allowed to put into practise what they have learned. They are given guidance on how to operate businesses and we provide the support needed to do so,” she said.

“We also offer work-based learning as another option for training and this is where aspects of the training will be done in a real-life work setting on the site of the HEART College of Beauty Services,” she added.

The college also has a finishing school that is aimed at fine-tuning the skills of graduates to ensure that their customer service skills are on point.

For her part, regional director, Region 1, at the HEART/NSTA Trust Charlene Mohan said: “We’re very proud of the HEART College of Beauty Services and what it offers, because we believe that it goes beyond training; it can impact economic development.”

“We [also] understand and we recognise, through the stories of our very trainees and graduates, that they are creating livelihood for themselves and others. We have many examples and stories of trainees who have come through the institution having been trained and are able to, immediately after training, create employment for others and themselves,” Mohan added.

She noted that the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) recently indicated that the services sector would have grown significantly in the last year and the HEART College of Beauty Services sits squarely in services.

“We’re keen on the information, and we are looking at where we can seek to develop. We have partnered with 25 community training interventions to expand access across the region, to ensure that Jamaicans can access training programmes across the eight sectors that we provide services to, within this region,” the regional director said.

Those interested in applying to the college may do so by visiting the HEART/NSTA Trust website at http://www.heart-nta.org/ or visit the College of Beauty Services, located at 10 Hope Road, Kingston 10.