Abstract:

Rather than curbing growth, the Covid-19 pandemic has served to hasten the wellness boom. Indications suggest that this upward trend in the wellness industry, of which the beauty and spa industry is a key player, will be maintained post Covid-19. While the beauty and spa industry is integral to this exponential grow pattern there is no such parallel growth in the provision of beauty and spa in higher education. Based on an extensive and critical review of the literature, this study indicates that the key issues at play in the development of the beauty and spa in higher education include increased fragmentation of the industry due to the extensive range of beauty products and services available across a wide array of facilities and environments, inadequate regulatory oversight, over reliance on industry self-regulatory measures resulting in diversity of standards and procedures among beauty and spa practitioners, a widening information gap and a lack of education and training for beauty practitioners and consumers. This study contends that a standard approach to qualification at all levels will become more important as the beauty and spa industry grows. The current mix of national and private international qualifications, the increasing presence of many overseas workers now employed as therapists, together with the expanding number of product houses and demand for unique treatments, means that providing beauty and spa education across the tertiary landscape with adequate progression opportunities in relevant cognitive disciplines is critical for the professionalisation of this expanding industry. This points to a significant barrier causing inequity for the beauty and spa industry, an inequity shared across many higher education organisations in Europe. As such, beauty and spa education is an underexplored field of research and as a first step to redress this imbalance this study proposes a research agenda for beauty and spa education based on a number of research avenues. These include the identification of specific beauty and spa skills gap, assessment of how educators can build skills and foster inclusion for the beauty and spa industry, evaluation of the need to facilitate pathways between Further to Higher Education and determine the impact of the current diverse standards of education, assessment, and licensing from the perspectives of industry providers, consumers, representative bodies, policy makers and educators.

Keywords:

Beauty, Spa, Higher Education.