This week we take a look at the Supporting Young Person Award and speak to last year’s winner.

Molbys Ltd Hairdressers, in Huntingdon, won last year’s Supporting Young Person Award and they have expressed how much it meant to them.

Carmen Winstanley, manager of Molbys, said: “It meant so much to us and our team winning the award, young people are our future and if we can train them to be fantastic hairdressers that is the most amazing achievement anyone could ask for and makes our job worthwhile.”

Molbys has been running for 26 years and felt the achievement became real when they won the award last year, Carmen said: “It has been great to have the recognition we deserve we have worked hard for 26 years, training and educating young people to become fantastic hairdressers.

“This award meant so much to be able to finally showcase what we do to help young people achieve their dream of becoming a fantastic hairdressers this became real the night we won the award.”

This year has brought significant challenges for all businesses in the county during the pandemic especially and Carmen explains how hard it has been.

“She said: “So we put in place extensive training working hard with the college to get our young people up and running virtually so they could still learn while they were off work.

“We also worked with Tigi International who also did colour courses via Zoom to help train if for some reason they missed the session it was recorded so I would send a link for them to catch up.”

Many hairdressers opened their doors on July 4 after being closed for a significant period of time.

Carmen explains the challenges of reopening, she said: “We have reopened but it is still a challenge, we are taking all precautions we can and follow Government guidelines to still help our young people achieve their hairdressing qualification.”

The Hunts Post Business Awards will take place on November 6 at the Burgess Hall, in St Ives. Deadline for entries is 5pm on September 2. For more information about how to enter, criteria and the awards night, go to the business awards website at: www.huntsbusinessawards.co.uk.

THE CRITERIA FOR THE SUPPORTING YOUNG PEOPLE AWARD

The Supporting Young People Award looks at how a company has supported a young person by offering an apprenticeship, work placement, work experience or other initiative.

It also looks at how the young person has demonstrated the valuable work skills and personal skills; a young person has developed based on the opportunity offered to them.

Furthermore it looks at the internal impact of how supporting a young person has helped the business or organisation improve, adapt or innovate.

Finally it looks at the future commitment, of how the business plans to give ongoing commitment to supporting young people in the near future.

Remember you can enter up three categories.

THE SPONSOR

Urban & Civic is based at the Alconbury Enterprise campus, which sits in a prime location on the transport spine of the country with road and rail links to all points of the compass.

The Campus enjoys close links to the global innovation centre of Cambridge and the environmental cluster of Peterborough. It is an ideal location for businesses to make their future.

The Government-backed Enterprise Zone is supported by a team of partners locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, and is being developed by site owners Urban&Civic. The Campus offers a range of benefits including: 100 per cent business rates discount; worth up to £275,000 over a five-year period; simplified planning processes, supported by the developer’s planning and design team and superfast broadband.

Urban&Civic is also offering a range of other opportunities which includes: a team of internationally renowned architects; consultants and project managers; support to recruit local people, and develop skills of new and existing staff; support and advice on workforce travel planning; a range of local banks, business support and services; flexible terms and options and help, with partners to access additional funding and support.