The Australasian College Broadway (the College) was established by
Maureen Houssein-Mustafa in 1994. A wholly Australian owned company, it
is now recognised as the benchmark College in Australia offering Nails,
Beauty, Makeup, Hairdressing, and Business Management qualifications
all under one roof. The College has since begun extending its offerings
to include Aged Care, English and a number of other qualifications,
each with a pathway to Higher Education.
Maureen commenced the College with a $1,600 outlay, and the school
had only 6 students when it first opened its doors. Nearly 20 years on
and the College has now been independently valued at $30 million. It
has the capacity to accommodate 1500 domestic and international
students, taking courses across different skill areas yearly. The recent
expansion of the premises which spans over 8,500 sq metres, makes it
the largest private hair and beauty college in Australia.
Two decades after starting with $1600 and a leased shop on Sydney’s Broadway, Maureen Houssein-Mustafa’s
Australasian College
has just joined the likes of the ANU and RMIT as a registered higher
education provider, bringing degrees to the hair, beauty & make-up
industry for the first time.
The Australasian College’s first degree, Health Science (Clinical
Aesthetics), commences next month and will qualify students to work in a
paramedical capacity at spas and salons offering technology such as
IPL (intense pulsed light) and low-level lasers.
“There was no course out there teaching people to use these machines safely, that’s why you see clips on
A Current Affair of customers who’ve been burnt by IPL,” Houssein-Mustafa says.
“We’re talking to government about requiring education in this area.
To use a laser eye machine you need to go to uni for seven years, why
should you be able to just take a weekend course for a machine that can
leave someone’s body scarred?”
The process of qualifying as a higher education provider took three
years and will have cost $6 million by the end of 2013/14,
Houssein-Mustafa says.
She had to establish an academic board - it’s chaired by veteran
CSIRO director Dr Terry Cutler - and develop an entire new wing at the
College’s main campus in Glebe.
The Health Science (Clinical Aesthetics) degree, which includes a
mentorship program, will cost $66,000 over three years including all
materials.
An associate degree in dermal therapy is in the final stages of
approval and is scheduled to commence later this year, Houssein-Mustafa
says.
“Beauty education is catching up with what customers are demanding.
People used to want their legs waxed, now they want permanent hair
reduction. They used to be happy with a facial, now they want
skin-resurfacing,” she says.
The Australasian College already employs 90 full-time equivalents to
service more than 1000 students. Under the vocational education &
training (VET) framework, they can receive diplomas in hairdressing -
“which gives you all the skills you need to start your own salon” - for
$29,500, or diplomas in beauty therapy or make-up costing between
$17,000-$19,000.
Already the first beauty school to have been approved as a Registered
Training Organisation, under which students can ‘study now, pay later’
under the VET Fee Help scheme, Houssein-Mustafa expects fee help for the
new degrees to also be approved soon.
“Hairdressing or beauty used to be things you did because you
couldn’t get into uni,” says Houssein-Mustafa, the product of a
Cypriot-Turkish migrant family who herself left school aged 16.
“Now it’s a profession, and I’m about investing in its future so
there are pathways there for talented people to progress in it.”
Claiming to have been profitable even since her first month in
business, Houssein-Mustafa says a key to her success has been investing
in her staff. One, Janis Gordon, came for what she thought was a
three-hour temporary secretary stint just after Houssein-Mustafa had
opened her business. She’s now been there 20 years and is general
manager of the College.
Staff receive the equivalent of three weeks per year professional
development, with courses often accompanied by a supervision program for
the particpants’ children - acknowledging the fact many of them are
mothers.
In 2011, Houssein-Mustafa was awarded the Order of Australia Medal
for services to vocational education and training, and to the community
for philanthropic efforts like funding scholarships to her college for
unemployed youth under the SISTER2sister program.
Sources: internet sites
