by Aline Nassif

aline.nassif@essnmedia.co.uk

It would be nothing new for her students but the deputy head of Croydon College is hoping to make work experience compulsory - for her tutors.

Heather Armstrong has been inspired by spending a week working in a Selsdon beauty salon.

The 39-year-old credits a stint at Aphrodite Beauty Salon for transforming her beauty therapy lessons.

So now she wants colleagues at the sixth form college to spend similar time out of the classroom and back in the "real world".

She said: "As a teacher I don't want to just teach my students to pass their exams, but I want to prepare them for the real world.

"Going back to work gave me a real insight into the commercial aspects of beauty therapy that you can't find in textbooks."

Ms Armstrong joined the college 10 years ago as a part-time lecturer, and worked her way up to become deputy head two years ago.

She believes tutors teaching everything from performing arts to engineering and child care to construction could benefit from work experience.

"Beauty therapy these days is increasingly holistic, with more emphasis on smells and sounds, and there is a lot of new technology and machinery," she added.

"Some of my students will want to go straight into managerial roles and set up their own businesses, so exposure to new ideas and a sense of entrepreneurship is absolutely integral to making a success of it.

"There are also other small things I picked up, like the importance of doing a job in a certain time so your business is profitable.

"It is amazing what you can pick up in a short space of time in the real world.

"It was an enriching experience and I think all vocational tutors would benefit from working in the real world."

Beauty therapy, unlike other vocational subjects, has a compulsory "professional development" module which compels lecturers to undertake work experience.

Croydon College often uses its three in-house student-run beauty therapy salons that have been rated as "outstanding" by Ofsted inspectors.

But Ms Armstrong says she has hit on a winning formula with the nationally accredited Business Interchange (BI) work experience programme, which matches lecturers up with relevant placements online.

She said: "I am the first lecturer in my college who has tried it and I want everyone to benefit from it as I have."

While Ms Armstrong goes about trying to make the work experience compulsory, after hearing her vision some tutors have already signed up to follow in her footsteps voluntarily.