SHAPING FUTURES
Transforming Lives Through Hairdressing
Shaping Futures offers a brighter future to disadvantaged youngsters by teaching them the craft of hairdressing. What started in 2008 as a local Japanese project with Cambodian street children, evolved into a global initiative in 2010 when Schwarzkopf Professional partnered with SOS Children’s Villages - a leading non-profit organisation – to launch Shaping Futures.
Voluntary teams from our partner salons have been bringing their hairdressing knowledge and expertise to disadvantaged youngsters in twenty-five countries. For the poorest communities, any education at all can seem out of reach, with children often working rather than attending school. Shaping Futures gives these young people the opportunity to learn a valuable vocation for free, empowering them to live an independent life with access to the job market and the chance to earn a good living.
Our 5 training blocks mentor and guide the youngsters through the basics in hairdressing, but since we want to make a real and lasting difference, we provide follow-up apprenticeships, support and job placements and ensure that every student is able to take full advantage of the opportunity and can become independent through the hairdressing profession.
Thanks to the co-operation of famous hairdressing schools across the globe, additional scholarships have been offered to our Shaping Futures youngsters to ensure the long-term sustainability of this project
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As one of our very first Shaping Futures countries, our Cambodian team have now trained over 120 youngsters, with eight training sessions having already taken place.
Shaping Futures already supported almost 270 students in Alibag, Bangalore, Bawana, Chennai, Cochin, Greenfields, Jaipur, Kolkata and New Delhi, providing them with new job perspectives.
For the fifth time, the Shaping Futures team have been working in Colombia with youngsters from the SOS Children’s Village in Bogota. Since it began, 119 students have been trained.
Over 80% of the 60 UNESCO youngsters trained in our Academy in Zagreb have found a job in the hairdressing industry.
Our volunteers have already taught 30 disadvantaged youngsters the basic skills in hairdressing during our Shaping Futures trainings in Slovenia.
Our volunteers have been working with young adults from the SOS Children’s Villages Siedlce, in Poland, in order to give them the skills they need to escape hardship and improve their chances in life.
In Jordan, a hairdresser's education is one that only few can afford, yet a top-class hairdresser can earn three times more than the average local salary – even more reason for us to pass on our skills and help to break the cycle of poverty.
Together with SOS Philippines, Schwarzkopf Professional has managed to help 64 disadvantaged youngsters find an occupation in the field of hairdressing in the Philippines.
After the successful start of our 2013 Shaping Futures project in Germany, Schwarkopf Professional continues to offer hairdressing trainings to refugees.
Shaping Futures training has been offered in the SOS Children’s Villages in Go Vap and Da Nang, as well as in the Viet Hair Academy to help youngsters fulfill their hairdressing dreams. So far 46 students have been trained in Vietnam.
Our Portuguese and Brazilian volunteers work with youths from Brazil’s poorest state, whose lives have been impacted by poverty.
Shaping Futures is proud to announce that an amazing two third's of disavantaged adolescent children from the Sharpeville Foundation and SOS Children’s Villages in South Africa have been able to start a career in hairdressing.
In Romania, 11 youngsters from the SOS Children’s Villages were offered scholarships at the five most famous hairdressing schools in the country.
In Hong Kong, 171 youngsters have extended their hairdressing knowledge and now have the necessary tools to start a professional career.
