Leicester College Make-Up and Artistry learners are celebrating success at the 2014 Association of Hair and Therapy (AHT) Awards which were held in Blackpool’s famous Winter Gardens on Monday 17 March 2014.

Zoe Watts, who is on the Level 2 Hair and Media Make-up Diploma, won first place in the 16+ themed face painting in the national final with her creative snake design.

There was more success to follow. Two learners from the Foundation Degree course in Artistic Make-up and Special Effects course also had cause to celebrate.

Jade Coggin, a second year learner from the Artistic Make-Up course achieved second place in the Halloween themed prosthetics competition with her creepy foam latex creation.

Maddy Bingley, is enrolled on the same course as Jade reached 11^th place in the Gender Transformation category and was a model for Jade on the day for the Halloween themed prosthetic competition.

Each year the AHT Awards in Blackpool welcome over 7,000 hair and beauty professionals as well as learners from across the UK.

Zoe said “This was the first time I had entered the competition and I was shocked to have won. There were so many creative designs out there so I was really nervous. The whole experience was great for all of us involved.”

Jade said: “I had an amazing time during this competition and it’s given me a great deal of confidence. My success was truly a team effort, my lecturers and all the other learners helped me by encouraging and advising me through all my practice runs.”

Maddy added: “Taking part in these competitions has helped me to develop my confidence.. It’s an amazing achievement to have been selected for the AHT Awards itself. Seeing so many high profile industry professionals gives you a glimpse of what it might be like to work in the industry and it was really interesting to see what kind of designs are out there.”

Lisa Jacobs, Curriculum Area Manager for Hairdressing and Beauty Therapy said “I would like to say a huge thank you to the staff and learners who gave up their time to compete in this competition. I am tremendously proud of what our learners achieved, in particular my congratulations go to Zoe, Jade and Maddy.  It just goes to show what highly skilled learners we have.”