SPRINGER MEMORIAL SCHOOL will open for business in mid-March.
That is when the cosmetology students will start their own operations in the fully-equipped Purple Kisses Salon, which was officially opened by Minister of Education Ronald Jones on Friday.
Business development partner Charmaine Hunte, who has been working with the students, said the students would be advertising the salon to girls in both secondary and primary schools from the end of this month.
Picking up on a point from Jones that there was to much “moaning” in Barbados, Hunte said this form of entrepreneurship should prevent the Springer students from falling into that league.
“So they will not have to moan for job placements, they would have established their own salon and they will become self-sufficient,” Hunte said.
In commending the principal and the staff for the push they are giving the students, Jones encouraged people to shift from a situation of “give me” to one that recognised that they could change both themselves and the world through knowledge.
He told the girls to not only see Barbados as their marketplace, but the Caribbean where they could eventually spread their wings.
“Use that entrepreneurial talent developed right here at the Florence Springer Memorial and supported by the Small Business Association, and supported by Shelly Williams to reach out and to give and to bring others in the region closer together as a result of your efforts,” Jones said, as he encouraged the budding cosmetologists to be bold like lions.
The new salon is an initiative which falls under the Enterprise in Action (EIA) programme offered through the Small Business Association.
Income generating Chief executive officer of the association Lynette Holder said 85 of the 925 students passing through the programme in the last five years had been from Springer.
She said she hoped the programme would be income generating for the school.
Holder said she would like to see the programme in all the schools. She said the desire was to see it as a permanent fixture on the curriculum.
An excited principal Pauline Benjamin encouraged more businesses to come forward and partner with schools on projects like the Small Business Association and WSalons have done for Springer.
“This has not only equipped us to meet the requirements of the TVET (Technical Educational and Vocational Training) but will allow the students to operate in a modern and realistic environment and have the experience of reaching out to the community,” Benjamin stated.
People in neighbouring communities can also go to the Purple Kisses Salon to benefit from the training.
Having secured help for cosmetology, Benjamin made a plug for the agricultural project which has been stalled because of financial constraints.
Williams, who said she was not a stylist, spoke about how she got involved in the project and how the WSalons Partner School Programme developed.
She said while the students do tattoos, hair and nails they were also pursuing degrees in other careers at the University of the West Indies.
She encouraged others to join in the movement “to change a school one project at a time”.
Chief executive officer of BGI Beauty Inc, Jaouni Mohammed, donated products and pieces of equipment for the new salon.
(YB)
