Cheryl-Tierney

Cheryl plays a vital role in the admin team as our Programme Development Manager. She knows the academy inside out, first becoming part of the Servilles Academy team in 2000. 

A hairdresser by trade, Cheryl started in hairdressing because it was something she always wanted to do, “I don’t even remember the moment I decided. It was always going to happen.” Cheryl got a position at a salon, then studied at Bruno Barberelli’s college in Christchurch which was the best place to study at the time. Cheryl thanks her parents for her hairdressing training, as they paid for it. “I was given a choice to study hairdressing or get braces for my teeth. I chose hairdressing. It’s only now in my later years I have thought if there was a way I could have had both. But you can’t go back in time. Even so, I don’t regret my decision.”

Following completion of her apprenticeship, working at two salons and then four years teaching at a leading hairdressing academy, it was time for a change. Cheryl saw an advertisement requiring a tutor at Servilles Academy in Christchurch. She was interviewed by then General Manager Jackie Allum and got the job in 2000.  After a year of teaching in the South Island (and Jackie trying to convince her to move to Auckland) Cheryl finally gave in and came to the City of Sails.

Cheryl’s role has evolved over the years. When she returned from overseas in 2014, Cheryl was managing Off Job Training and teaching full-time classes. She then moved into assessment development and moderation, and now mostly manages internal and external moderation. This involves ensuring compliance with the marking and filing of assessment material, writing and co-writing assessment material for our hairdressing, barbering and makeup courses, as well as managing the reporting of consistency of our graduates with NZQA.

“This is our 2nd week in lockdown, where we are all working at home, still within our respective job roles; Tutors teaching students with engaging lessons online, students still staying engaged in their learning, admin still managing their administrative functions, recruitment still working to recruit new students for the future, management still supporting and advising where needed, me trying to maintain consistency in marking and filing of assessment, while all of us are trying to stay positive and healthy within our own bubbles with our families and bubble buddies. What I am most proud of about working with this team is the adaptability and the positivity in maintaining this new normal. I am so proud of how everyone works together to just make it work. A great team to work with.”

“With a hairdressing qualification there are so many things you can do with it, from working as a stylist, to owning and operating a salon, to freelancing, to teaching, to managing, there is no limit to the doors it can open.”