Hair academy 'a financial predator'  


Apprentice hairdresser Jessica Downs is being sued for $11,000 after she withdrew from a training program.



A LAWYER for a 19-year-old hairdressing student being sued by a Melbourne academy claims it runs a ''predatory money-making'' scheme that preys on innocent teenagers.  

Barrister Andrew Woods told a tribunal hearing that several students were in his client Jessica Downs's situation and that ''many have been bankrupted through this scheme''.

Mr Woods, acting pro bono, said the academy, after training students such as Ms Downs for two weeks, ''farmed them out'' to salons around Melbourne where they were paid $5 daily while the academy received $75 each day.  


Counsel for Francapelli Academy, which is suing Ms Downs for $11,000 for allegedly breaching the terms of its scholarship program, denied the claims.

Colin King recently told the Victoria Civil and Administrative Tribunal the $5 payment was normal for such placements, which was affirmed by a Skills Victoria executive memo.

In its claim, Francapelli said Ms Downs, of Berwick, and her father signed a scholarship program in December 2008 that required her to do 2580 hours of training for a certificate.

The program involved classroom instruction and ''practical industry work experience placement'' for a minimum of 900 hours with a ''foster'' salon at $5 a day.

If she freely left the program, she had to say so in writing and pay $8.25 for each hour she was trained.

The claim states Ms Downs breached the program's terms by telling Francapelli by phone in October 2009 that she would not be returning and had since failed to pay the balance of 1322 training hours.

In her defence filed before the action was listed at VCAT, Ms Downs said the agreement was not binding and was void and unenforceable because at the time she was not 18 and lacked legal capacity.

She said being required to pay for training received was a ''penalty'', denied Francapelli provided 1322 hours of training and that if any agreement existed it terminated it when she rang to request two weeks off over a leg injury. She said she planned to pursue a counter-claim for loss and damage.

At VCAT earlier this month, Mr King denied Mr Woods's submission that the agreement included a ''penalty provision'', submitting it was a ''liquidated'' contract and one that was not unfair.

Mr King told VCAT member Heather Lambrick that Ms Downs was now working as an apprentice hairdresser, a position she got after Francapelli ''assisted her getting this traineeship''.

In adjourning the case, Ms Lambrick ordered Francapelli to provide details of payments it received for 2008-09, its payments to salons and salons' payments to it for work performed by students.