A TOP civil servant travelled to east Durham yesterday to open a hairdressing salon.
Mark Haysom, chief executive of the Learning and Skills Council, opened the training salon at East Durham and Houghall Community College in Peterlee.
After cutting a ribbon to mark the official opening, Mr Haysom said: "I am extremely impressed by what I have seen today.''
He applauded the college for the strides it had made over recent years, and added: "One of the big challenges we have is to get young people engaged in further education by providing more vocational courses.''
However, he said that the most important feature of such courses was that they met the relevant industry's standards.
He said the newly-extended training salon at the college was a perfect example of what was needed.
Vice-principal of the college Malcolm Fallow said that, since the training courses at the salon had begun in September, interest had been shown from hundreds of young people from the area.
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