Kim Beattie

I have been working in the industry for 24 years, starting out in Hair Directory as a Modern Apprentice and working my way up to stylist and then senior stylist. I was very passionate about hairdressing and was lucky enough to be put forward for many courses including cutting and colouring through Wella. At 24 years old I was promoted to assistant manager and continued in this role for two years before deciding to open my own salon, which I still have today. In the first few months of opening, I entered Trend Vision and achieved overall Scottish winner, which I am very proud of as we were only a small salon. After six years I moved to bigger premises as our client base was growing and we needed to take on more staff. I have trained many students within the salon helping them achieve their hairdressing qualification, which gave me great satisfaction and led me to the UHI to work as an assessor. I am still very passionate about hair and I really enjoy passing on my knowledge to the next generation of stylists. 

Elizabeth Burton

I am an experienced Hairdresser and Educator with 25 years’ experience within the hairdressing industry.  I have enjoyed working within a large international company, then on to running my own Inverness based salon for 15 years. I now enjoy training others through salon-based learning and college teaching and am looking to expand my experience and passion for teaching going forwards. 

After embarking on my hairdressing college training, I graduated from Inverness College with an SVQ level 2 in Hairdressing. I went on to complete an HNC in Hairdressing and Salon Organisation from Perth College and over the years have accumulated many industry certificates in hairdressing, including Wella, Toni & Guy, Patrick Cameron, Matrix , GHD among other amazing educational courses.

After graduating from college, I enjoyed a successful career at Toni & Guy, I worked through their educational system to become a Style Director and Educator within their team, teaching in their Scottish academy, Glasgow and salon based work in Edinburgh.  Staying within the company, I travelled and worked in Prague and really enjoyed being part of the team there.  A wonderful experience, opening a new salon and training with new staff.  After this, I then realised I was ready to start my own business and enjoyed training my own staff while teaching within UHI back in Inverness.  The knowledge and training I gained while working in industry, has been paramount to the tools I use daily in roles I undertake on campus.  The training, structure, and professionalism I learnt through my training is often something I still relate to and strive to take forward with our students here at UHI. Over my 16 years here at Inverness College UHI, I have focused on the theory side of teaching and learning, developing my educational methods.

Ross Trainer

Ross joined Inverness College 10 years ago bringing with him a wealth of industry knowledge, spanning the prior 19 years, ranging from salon ownership to session styling.  Ross’s career started as a salon assistant for Charles Worthington in London and progressed with Alan Edwards in Glasgow.  Ross developed a passion for education and took the opportunity to teach with Toni & Guy and even relocate to Milan.  The role quickly became focused on education and academy operations and gave Ross the opportunity to work at events, seminars, on editorial shoots and International hair shows.  In 2000 Ross became a L’Oreal Colour Trophy winner.

Ross left the salon in 2008 to become a college lecturer, starting in Glasgow and moving to Inverness in 2010.  Since joining UHI he has furthered his professional career by achieving a Bachelor of Arts (with merit) in Tertiary Education.  Ross has a passion for the craft of hairdressing and believes that his experience and positivity, alongside a formal teaching background, enables him to inspire students to meet their own creative and career aspirations.

Colette Mckechnie

I have been hairdressing for 34 years and a lecturer in hairdessing at Inverness College UHI for 5 years. I teach all levels of hairdressing and use my industry experience of employment in a busy modern salon to ensure students receive a realistic and relevant  experience of what is needed to become a successful stylist. This is supported by continued professional development in industry and learning and teaching, to support a delivery of excellent standards for our students

Experience

I have a vast experience in all aspects of hairdressing and currently employed part time as a lecturer at Inverness Colege UHI and work in a busy salon as a hairstylist, assessor and verifier. The salon trains and delivers SVQ level 2 & 3 hairdressing and this has given me a great experience of training and assessing students in the workplace.

I specialise in colour in the salon and have achieved the highest recogognised industry award of Wella Master Colour Expert. I have used this knowledge in delivering SVQ level 2 and 3, this works well as the college uses Wella products. Part of being a MCE means that I attend regular updated training to use Wella colouring products. This is valuable as I share this with my colleagues in the College, keeping us up to date with new developments

I have a wealth of experience through continuoisly updating my skills to be able to meet the demands of clients and the assessment strategy of the SVQ qualifications.