A WREXHAM-based beauty business has been shortlisted to the top five out of 500 nominees for a highly prestigious award.

CS Hair and Beauty Academy has been highly commended at the prestigious VTCT Excellence with over 500 nominees, making it to the top five in the category 'Independent Training Provider' of the year.

The award ceremony took place at Milton Keynes College and honoured the remarkable talent and inspiring stories of all businesses involved.

The Leader:

The Excellence Awards exist to reinforce the charitable objective of seeking to advance education for the benefit of the public and recognise those who do this.

As well as this, the Excellence Awards marked 60 years of VTCT, bringing together the VTCT group of companies (iTEC, VTCT, Skillsfirst, and Skills for Logistics) in celebration.

Learners and training providers were honoured for their skills and expertise, and their stories of triumph over adversity were showcased throughout.

The Academy was established in 2011 by Claire Slawson on the outskirts of Wrexham Town after having been in the industry for over twenty years.

She said: "What an achievement we are over the moon, to say the least, to be highly commended in our category.

"We are looking forward to continuing to develop our academy in the future, moving with times and looking at developing our Higher level hair and beauty qualifications.

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"We may have a small team, but I'm extremely proud of what we achieve."

Simon Baynes, Member of Parliament for Clwyd South, said: "I was pleased to learn that your fantastic small business is being recognised in this manner. 

"Vocational and careers training are key in helping to grow a business and your commitment to providing high-quality training and learning opportunities to staff is evident in your being shortlisted for this award."