IT SEEMS the way to education is through food and beauty.

Proving the point hundreds of times over is the Bellezza Academy, a social enterprise training establishment for beauty and cooking based at Quay Road, Bridlington.

It is a bid to work with disadvantaged females across North and East Yorkshire, many of them excluded teenagers with issues relating to home or education, seeking an alternative “hands-on” learning style.

The result is four establishments – in Bridlington, where the academy runs its own Italian restaurant, in Scarborough, and two in Hull, all of which have trained more than 100 students and which offer 1,500 children summer camps to learn cooking and beauty.

It has proved such a success that its founder director, Angela Langton, is now gunning not only for the Best Employer And Education Link title but also the Women In Enterprise accolade in The Press Business Awards 2010.

Angela’s project is self-funded, without any Government backing. It came about after she was made redundant in 2004 as a youth business adviser for Mymac, part of Business Link.

A former mentor for the Prince’s Trust, Angela became concerned about the fate of young girls unable to cope with the normal education system.

“There was so much latent talent going to waste because it was not being channelled. Bellezza was the remedy,” she said.

Bridlington is regarded as the academy’s head office and beauty centre, and five doors down from the salon is the restaurant, where students are given a thorough NVQ training in catering.

The academy concentrates on hair and beauty at its Scarborough salon, training 14 to 16-year-olds. At Hull it has a fully operational Bellezza hair salon, as well as a separate hair-styling training centre.

Angela works with all the schools in Scarborough, Bridlington and Hull to provide her alternative learning and the project recently received £12,000 from the Social Fund to offer training in the catering sector for long-term unemployed, lone parents and people aged 50 and above.

Last year Bellezza earned a Social Enterprise Award by the Bridlington and Wolds Chamber of Commerce on the back of praise from schools across the region.

Now Angela is looking to expand into Selby next year, looking at potential sites.