Personal Services

Industry insights on skills needs

Job vacancy data suggests the top five occupations in demand across the Personal Services industry are:

• Hairdresser
• Florist
• Funeral Worker (nec)
• Make Up Artist
• Beauty Therapist.

According to job vacancy data the top two employers across the Personal Services industry are Just Cuts Incorporated and Invocare Australia.

The Personal Services IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast acknowledged that although technical skills are imperative, the following soft skills have been highlighted as priority skills for the industry:

• Teamwork and communication
• Emotional intelligence
• Resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility
• Self-management
• Creativity.

In addition, the top ranked generic skills for the industry according to the Personal Services IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast, were:

• Customer service / Marketing
• Communication / Collaboration including virtual collaboration / Social intelligence
• Design mindset / Thinking critically / System thinking / Solving problems
• Learning agility / Information literacy / Intellectual autonomy and self-management
• Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN).

The Personal Services IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast identifies three factors which are currently challenging the industry. These are skills shortages, attraction and retention, and government policy / legislation changes.

A lack of skills and knowledge among industry graduates has been highlighted by employers, with the uptake of short, condensed and/or non accredited training, as well inadequate training materials identified as contributing to the lack of skills. In addition, many students are unable to gain real world work experience due to a lack of quality work placements and opportunities to gain practical experience, therefore meaning these students miss opportunities to develop both ‘soft skills’ and fundamental technical skills.

The challenge of attracting skilled workers has been in part attributed to key influencers such teachers, school career advisors and parents not valuing personal services occupations as viable career pathways, therefore dissuading young people from choosing a career within the Personal Services industry. Retention issues have been highlighted with regards to hairdressing apprenticeships where attrition rates are high and steadily increasing. Increased competition from home-based salons has been identified as draining the supply of skilled workers, while a suggestion has been made to encourage more engagement between apprentices and industry outside of mandatory work requirements to try and combat high attrition rates.

Inconsistent policies and legislation across jurisdictions mean that overall there is a lack of appropriate regulation in the hairdressing and beauty sector according to the Personal Services IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast. In many states, local councils are now responsible for determining if these businesses are meeting health regulations, as separate state-based shop registration procedures have now ceased. The industry strongly believes that licencing needs to return or be reintroduced for hairdressing and beauty services, especially in relation to the use of intense pulsed light (IPL), laser equipment and cosmetic tattooing. In line with this, SkillsIQ, under the direction of the Personal Services IRC, has submitted a Case for Endorsement for the Advanced Diploma of Intense Pulsed Light and Laser for Hair Reduction Case for consideration by the AISC.

For detailed analysis of skills needs, see the respective sector pages.

Below is a list of industry-relevant research, organisations and associations. Hyperlinks have been included where available.

Relevant research

Advanced Diploma of Intense Pulsed Light and Laser for Hair Reduction Case for Endorsement - SkillsIQ

WorkSafe Tasmania COVID Safe Workplace Guidelines – WorkSafe Tasmania

Industry associations and advisory bodies

Aesthetics Practitioners Advisory Network

Australian Association of Floral Designers

Australian Flower Council

Australian Funeral Directors Association

Australian Hairdressing Council

Australian Institute of Embalming

Hair and Beauty Australia

Hair and Beauty Industry Association

Independent Funeral Directors Association of Australia

National Funeral Directors Association of Australia

Retail and Personal Services Skills Advisory Council

WildFlowers Australia

Employee associations

Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association

Training data has been extracted from the National VET Provider Collection, Total VET Student and Courses from the following training packages or qualifications:

• SFL Floristry Training Package, SHB Hairdressing and Beauty Services Training Package, and SIF Funeral Services Training Package and all superseded Training Packages.

Priority skills data has been extracted from the Personal Services IRC’s 2019 Skills Forecast. Each IRC has prioritised and ranked the generic skills.

Job vacancy data have been extracted from Burning Glass Technologies 2020, Labor Insight Real-time Labor Market Information Tool, Burning Glass Technologies, Boston, viewed July 2020, https://www.burning-glass.com.

Data shown represent most requested occupations and employers according to internet job postings in Australia between July 2017 and June 2020 filtered by ANZSIC and ANZSCO classification levels listed below.

• Occupations
  
  • 9511 Hairdressing and Beauty Services
  • 4274 Flower Retailing
  • 9520 Funeral, Crematorium and Cemetery Services.

• Employers
  
  • 391111 Hairdresser
  • 451399 Funeral Workers nec
  • 399514 Make Up Artist
  • 451111 Beauty Therapist
  • 9511 Hairdressing and Beauty Services
  • 4274 Flower Retailing
  • 9520 Funeral, Crematorium and Cemetery Services.