Orazio Anelli Barber Academy

Orazio Anelli Barber Academy operates from Via Giovanni Botero in the Colli Albani district of Rome, about 300 metres from the metro, and runs a three-level programme totalling 1,480 hours: Level 1 assistant stylist at 208 hours, Level 2 junior stylist at 739 hours, and Level 3 stylist at 533 hours. Delivery combines lectures, theory, supervised training, workshops and assessments, with textbooks supplied at each level, and the academy states students may work in one of its seven Rome salons.

The credential needs care, because the academy’s own wording invites misreading. It is VTCT approved and partnered with HABIA, and describes this as a qualification recognised in Italy and across Europe. VTCT and HABIA are British awarding bodies. They are real and respected, but they do not confer the Italian abilitazione, and no Regione Lazio accreditation appears anywhere on the site. No prices are published either, not even on the page titled with the course cost.

A note on Italian credentials that matters more here than anywhere else in Europe. Hairdressing is a regulated trade under Law 174/2005, and to work as an acconciatore or barbiere you need a regional qualifica professionale with abilitazione, typically a multi-year regionally accredited course. A private academy’s attestato, however good the teaching, does not confer that right. Foreign awarding-body approvals do not either, whatever the marketing says.