Hairdressing tops list of young British women’s career choices

24 Mar 2015

Written by Alice Smithson

A new survey shows that hairdressing is the top career choice for young women in the UK, with beauty therapy also a popular career aspiration.

The British Association of Beauty Therapists and Cosmetology (Babtac) conducted research into young women’s career aspirations, asking over 2000 British women aged between 18-25 to choose their dream career choices. Respondents could choose as many options as they liked, regardless of whether they’d actually worked in the sector. Here are the results:

Hairdressing (36% of respondents)
Fashion (31%)
Beauty therapy (29%)
Interior design (26%)
Marketing and public relations (24%)
Accountancy (22%)
Law (19%)
Medicine (14%)
Sports nutrition/training/physiotherapy (11%)
Graphic design (8%)

The respondents were also asked whether they were currently employed in their choice of sector _ only 21% were. Of those 21%, 28% had chosen hairdressing as a career aspiration, and over a third chose beauty therapy. Nearly two-thirds of the young women surveyed said that they expected to work in their chosen sector in the future.

Family members were the top inspiration for respondents’ career choices, while the media, education, friends and celebrities also contributed.

While it may come as little surprise that hairdressing, fashion and beauty top the career aspirations of young women in the UK, it would certainly be interesting to see how these choices matched up to those of young men.

The survey results are good news for the hair and beauty industry, which will continue to see enthusiastic young people enter salons and spas as stylists and therapists. If you feel that your salon’s staff could benefit from a little extra motivation, consider using salon management software to help you identify high performers and provide staff incentives.