Name

Donna Waugh

I started my career in Hair and Beauty when leaving sixth form aged 18 and am still passionate about the industry 42 years later. I worked in a beauty salon gaining experience in between having my family until 1990 when I realised my passion for passing on knowledge, enrolling in a teaching course and becoming a lecturer continuing to achieve a teaching degree, Assessor and IQA qualifications. I represented the College Internationally for the British Council in Indonesia at trade fairs highlighting education in the sector. Over the next few years I worked at the college part time and taught at a small private training provider, eventually becoming School Manager and developing business growth from a one room training school to one that spanned 3 premises with 4 training salons, introduced Hairdressing Courses, recruiting, and building a team of 15 lecturers and gaining government funding contracts for the school.
I was head hunted in 2002 by VTCT to become an External Quality Assurer which meant working with Colleges and Private Training Providers to check the quality of their teaching on the qualifications that they offered. I was in this role advancing to Senior EQA for over 20 years visiting all the Colleges and most of the Private training providers in the South of England as well as working internationally in Malta, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, and India for VTCT helping centres gain approval to offer qualifications, training assessors and IQA’s and representing UK education at trade fairs. I have regulated qualifications ranging from Level 2 to Level 5 in Beauty Therapy and Aesthetics, level 2- Level 4 in Hairdressing, Sports massage at Level 3 and 4 and all aspects of Holistic and Complementary Therapies. I have Level 4 and 5 Diplomas in Management from the Institute of Management and NVQ 4 and 5 in Operational and Strategic Management.
I am now one of the two directors at Whitstable Beauty School where we offer regulated qualifications with VTCT, Focus Awards and Qualifi.
I have won awards as a Champion of the Health and Beauty Industry demonstrating my lifelong commitment to improving standards and educating the next generations of Beauty and Complementary therapists as well as teacher, assessors and IQA verifiers.