Beauty, Make-up & Nails Judges

27 years experience within Beauty   

Worked in Salons and Spas worldwide for beauty, nails and makeup

Previous Beauty Lecturer 

Panel member of City and Guilds

VTCT Development Consultant and panel member

AHT National Hair and Beauty competitions winner

Currently working as a Salon Manager and Advanced Beauty Therapist

Head AHT Beauty judge

With over 25 years of experience in Further Education, Nickie has built a robust career in teaching, curriculum leadership, and quality assurance. Starting in Hair, Beauty Therapy, Nails, and Holistic Treatments, she taught at all levels while navigating several college mergers and multi-site operations. Her roles extended beyond teaching, including Lead IQA, competition coordination, and, most recently, Curriculum Lead for Hair, Beauty, and Barbering, where she supported curriculum planning, interviews, and key college events.

In 2017, Nickie transitioned into a quality assurance role as Cross-College IQA Champion, working across five campuses and supporting a wide array of subject areas beyond her initial expertise, such as Animal Care, Agriculture, Construction, Catering, Health & Social Care, and Childcare. She played a pivotal role in developing new IQA processes and documentation used college-wide and collaborated with awarding bodies and EQAs to prepare departments for external reviews.

Currently, as Key Account Manager for Wales, Nickie supports centres in delivering   high-quality curriculum implementation, fostering growth, and ensuring students are well-prepared for their chosen pathways.

Andrea is passionate about competitions and believes they support students to excel in their career. 

They improve industry standards and increase student confidence and organisational skills. 

Andrea is currently a Hazel Dixon Professional Educator for Cheshire, has been a CND Educator for over 10 years and has worked as a teacher in FE for over 20 years specialising in nails. 

Standards and qualification project manager for HABIA. Educator. Advanced Beauty and Aesthetic Practitioner and Holistic and Well-being Therapist. 

Worked in various aspects of the industry from Salon’s, 5*star Hotel Spa’s, Assistant Spa Manager on the Galaxy Cruise ship &department stores. She has further developed her skills and is now a  trainer/educator specialising in the delivery of Level 4 Advanced Aesthetic Treatments.

I have 8 years’ experience working  within the Hair & Makeup industry working across Theatre, Tv , Beauty & Fashion - Kick Starting my career after Winning WorldSkills UK in 2016 I went straight into the West End working across multiple productions, started to work  my way through Tv shows then landing into beauty as a pro artist for Dior since I have been working mainly in beauty and fashion for the past 3 years. 

I have been fortunate enough to have worked with brands such as MAC, Too Faced, Benefit, Laura Mercier, Adidas , Nike , ASOS , North face,  Levi’s and  Victoria secret for campaigns and other projects. 

My career truly started here when I competed at the AHTs in 2015. It’s a pleasure to be back now 10 years on, A true full circle moment.

Sophie has been working in the Hair and Beauty Sector for over 17 years.

Sophie quickly progressed within her roles and identified that she had a passion for teaching. Sophie’s teaching career has seen her working within various sectors; NEET, Private and FE. Her most recent role, held for 7 years, at a local FE college. 

Here she held the position of course lead for level 1, 2 & 4 Beauty Therapy, alongside supporting the department as lead IQA. 

As part of her role’s Sophie explored the suite of level 4 qualifications, undertaking training in Laser & Light Therapy, Microblading, Skin Needling, Skin Peeling & Dermaplaning.

Kelly is a Key Account Manager for VTCT Skills with 20 years of experience in the Beauty and Education sector. 

As a practitioner, Kelly specialised in skincare and complementary therapies and worked for an international skincare company before becoming a trainer.

After attending university to study education Kelly taught beauty therapy, also working in Internal Quality Assurance, before managing a beauty academy.

Kelly’s role with VTCT Skills involves her supporting FE and Independent Training Providers across the North of England with their curriculum and qualifications.dd information here

With 30+ years industry experience in beauty and asethetics. from working in top salons to training in Harley street and then opening my own clinic, specialising in semi-permanent make-up, PRP, micro-needling, peels and more. Im passionate about staying at the at the forefront of the industry - still teaching and and treating clients who have remained with me for over 3 decades.