L’Oréal Malaysia Beauty For a Better Life programme aims to provide disadvantaged young women with professional hairdressing and beauty care tuition-free training. This year, 22 disadvantaged young women graduated from the programme after 12 months of training. The programme implemented in partnership with the National Council of Women’s Organization (NCWO) through its affiliate Y.W.C.A Vocational Training Opportunity Center and with the support of the L’Oréal Foundation has the ambition to educate girls with no access to education with a recognized hairdressing and beauty care certification course in order to help them to build their own path to a better life.

Beauty For a Better Life is taught by highly-qualified beauty professionals to ensure each trainees have the skills they need to launch their careers in the hairdressing and beauty care profession. Since the programme started in 2016 in Malaysia, 51 students has completed their training which includes opportunities in professional hairdressing and beauty care internship in Kuala Lumpur.

The L’Oréal Foundation has the ambition to educate girls with no access to education with a recognized beauty and hairdressing certification course in order to help them build their own path to a better life. The program is now run in over 20 countries worldwide with more than 30 key partners and have benefited over 4300 beneficiaries worldwide.

L’Oréal Malaysia has chosen to collaborate with NCWO on this programme because they have been instrumental in driving the development of women in Malaysia through all its affiliate since its inception in 1962. Through a partnership with NCWO, L’Oréal Malaysia sponsored the professional hairdressing and beauty care course conducted by Y.W.C.A Vocational Training Opportunity Center (VTOC). The VTOC has been a pioneer at providing vocational and skill development for young women from disadvantages communities since 1998 and have since trained 1,594 girls in various skills set to gain employment.

“Central in NCWO’s vision is the advancement of women in Malaysia. L’Oréal Malaysia’s Beauty For A Better Life programe adds value to NCWO’s vision. Their skills training programme empowers women by building capabilities in them thus enabling them to become independent in addition to improving their lives of their families and communities,” said Mrs. Omna Sreeni-Ong, Hon Secretary General, NCWO.

“It is very commendable that the YWCA KL had taken the initiative to set up VTOC twenty years ago to provide entrepreneurial skills to the young women and girls from disadvantaged sectors of our country. This project compliments the Government’s efforts to provide vocational training to the marginalised communities in our country,” said Ms. Hannah Yeoh, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Women, Family & Community Development.

As part of the partnership, L’Oréal Malaysia’s commitment extended to renovating the hairdressing studio with the latest equipment for greater comfort and convenience of the trainees and providing upskilling to the VTOC trainer with the latest techniques and products by L’Oréal Professional. L’Oréal Professional Artistic Ambassadors was also invited to provide masterclasses and inspiration to the trainees during the training programme.

“L’Oréal Malaysia’s sponsorship has certainly added value to the existing hairdressing and beauty care programme. They have renovated and furnished a new hairdressing studio and have provided additional training to enhance our curriculum that would ultimately benefit all our trainees and ensure they achieve a level of professionalism needed to secure good jobs when they complete their course,” Mrs. June Yeoh, Chairperson Y.W.C.A VTOC added.

After a 12-month long programme, the 22 participants of Beauty For A Better Life 2018 programme graduated at a lively ceremony, held at Olympic Council of Malaysia in the presence of their instructors and family members.

All 22 graduates were also presented with certificates during the ceremony. These young women are now ready to make their mark in the beauty industry and a brighter future for themselves.

The Top Student Award was presented to Slyvia Lyn Francis from Kuala Lumpur. She thanked L’Oreal and VTOC for the opportunity given and expressed that she is ready to face the future without hesitation. “During the one year of training, we were given the opportunity to attend many International Hair and Beauty Exhibitions to broaden our minds, which gave us an insight into what international hairstyling standard is about! We know this opportunity is granted to us because of L’Oreal’s corporate belief of beauty with a purpose, and that is for a better life; and Y.W.C.A. VTOC’s motto of “Empowering Young Women”. We are indeed inspired and strengthened to face the world,” said Slyvia.

The hairdressing business is a dynamic industry whereby the employment opportunities are enormous and a good hairstylist is regarded as a valuable asset. There is a high demand for skilled hairstyling apprentice as the industry expands.

“With the high demand in this industry, we hope that these young women will be able to gain employment and start their career in beauty,” said Ms. Zaireen Ibrahim, Corporate Communications Director, L’Oréal Malaysia.

“At L’Oréal, we believe that beauty contributes to feeling better and living better. Beauty For a Better Life programme was initiated to help disadvantaged young women to regain their dignity, humanity and femininity and to reintegrate into society,” explained Mr. Malek Bekdache, Managing Director, L’Oréal Malaysia and Singapore.