MANY schoolchildren find it hard to decide what they want to do when they leave school, and some college and university students still aren’t sure when they graduate.
This was certainly the case for Lenise Bruce, 32, when she left school at the age of 16.
She originally thought she would like to pursue a career with the police and did a HNC in social science at Aberdeen College to prepare her for applying to the force.
During her time at college, she kept up her part-time job at Tesco for extra income and, once her studies were complete, she was offered the chance to go on a management training scheme with the supermarket and decided to take up the offer, putting her plans for the police on hold.
After working for the company until she was 25, Lenise concluded that retail wasn’t the career for her and decided to listen to her heart and try something completely different.
“I decided I would look at something else that I would enjoy doing and that would give me job satisfaction,” she said.
“I had always enjoyed going to my beauty therapist and was always asking lots of questions about the treatments that she did, so I made the decision to take a short evening introduction to beauty course that was being held at Peterhead Outreach Centre.”
Although the course covered only the basic aspects of beauty care, Lenise was keen to learn more and applied to study for an HND at Aberdeen College when she was 26, commuting from Macduff during her two years of study while also working as a support worker to fund her studies.
“Going back to college after seven years was a challenge in itself. Not only having to work full-time to support myself, but also the work I needed to put in at nights for the course, was quite challenging.
“For me, the practical side of most treatments was straightforward and I picked things up with ease. The written work was a bit more of a challenge and the depth that we had to go into in some subjects was more than I had expected.
“When most people think of a beauty therapist or a beautician, they assume that it is mainly nails and make-up, but this is not the case. As a beauty therapist, we needed to learn in depth the systems of the body, and how we affect the body by performing treatments, physically, physiologically and psychologically,” she explained.
After leaving college, Lenise worked in a number of hair and beauty salons as a beauty therapist, but began to feel she was in the wrong profession again and left.
“I got to the point where I was bored of the treatments I was performing and began to question if beauty therapy really was for me.”
After six months, she was offered a job in a spa at a hotel in the outskirts of Aberdeen, getting her back into the beauty industry.
The position offered Lenise the chance to further her learning and she developed her skills and knowledge through a number of courses.
“I was also promoted to acting beauty manager during a time of maternity leave within the spa. I then took a more senior position within the spa which was taking me on a different path away from the beauty therapy that I enjoy so much.”
After three years at the hotel, Lenise felt the time was right to move jobs once again, and in May 2010, she was offered the position of senior therapist with PureSpa in Aberdeen.
“With ongoing training in the spa, I still have treatments to learn, which is a chance for me to gain more knowledge that I can pass on. Also, on the operational side of the salon, I am learning new routines in regards to stock and management of a more commercial spa, which is very enjoyable, taking me out of my comfort zone and pushing me to learn and progress.”
Lenise enjoys her position in the salon and has found it has given her a new ambition – to teach.
“I definitely feel that, in the future, this would be the direction I would like my career to take. I enjoy passing on skills and knowledge to my team-mates, and being able to help someone develop their skill and learn new things is a really satisfying feeling.
“I think it would be a great achievement to help people learn a trade, supporting them through their working life.”
Lenise says she has no regrets about not going straight into the beauty-therapy industry when she left school.
“I do feel that, if I had gone straight from school to college, I would not have been as dedicated to the course. However, since I had made the decision to go back to college, I was going to put in the work needed to ensuring that I passed.
“You need to have commitment to the course. It is hard work, but enjoyable at the same time.”