In Piedmont, access to the beauty therapist profession is causing a row
Training organisations are taking action against the Piedmont Regional Government, which, upon completion of the IEFP programme, grants qualification through a specific examination
There is a dispute in Piedmont between a number of accredited training agencies and the Regional Government over the entry requirements for the profession of beautician . By means of Executive Decision 422/2013, the Regional Government had established that, upon completion of the IEFP (Vocational Education and Training) programme, a single examination could lead to the award of both the IEFP vocational diploma and the licence to practise as a beautician. By means of Executive Decision 68/a1504D/2026 of last February, the Region has stipulated that, upon completion of the IEFP course for beauty therapy technicians and hairdressing technicians, two examinations must be taken: one relating to the training programme and the other qualifying the candidate for the profession.
The appeal to the Regional Administrative Court
Three accredited training agencies have lodged an appeal against this measure with the Regional Administrative Court (TAR), which, in an order published on 13 May, ruled that it would hear the case on its merits on 24 November. Subsequently, on 26 June, the Council of State decided to suspend the qualifying examinations and any qualifications already awarded, pending the Regional Administrative Court’s decision.
According to the appeal, under Law 1/1990, the vocational training programme cannot coincide with compulsory education, but must take place afterwards. The approach adopted by Piedmont creates an ‘overlap between the secondary school qualification and the legal requirement for access to the regulated profession, through a training model that allows professional qualification to be obtained upon completion of an IEFP course supplemented by a final examination of limited duration’.
According to the appellants, the training programmes governed by Law 1/1990 are based on uniform national standards designed to protect the health of service users; the solution adopted by the Piedmont Region circumvents these standards by introducing a training programme which results in ‘training dumping’. The appellants ‘do not contest the existence of the Iefp pathways nor the regional competence in planning the training provision relating to compulsory education, but solely the use of such pathways as a means of access to the qualification governed by national legislation’. In practice, they consider that the Regions are not permitted to ‘create new and distinct qualification courses’.
Furthermore, there is also an issue concerning the allocation of resources because ‘the use of the IEFP system as the standard route for access to the qualification pathway … allocates public resources… towards the creation of a pathway to a regulated profession governed by state law, in the absence of a primary legal basis permitting such integration’.
