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Subcommittee hears calls to remove apprenticeship requirement from barber licensure
Summary
Public testimony urged the Regulatory Review Subcommittee to use Bill 47‑52 to eliminate the additional apprenticeship hours in South Carolina’s master barber licensure (currently cited as 3,420 total hours), and to work with boards and staff on amendments next week.
The Regulatory Review Subcommittee heard public testimony calling for the removal of an apprenticeship requirement for master barbers as lawmakers consider Bill 47‑52.
"3420, that is the number of hours that is required to get your license as a master barber in South Carolina," said Stephanie Bergquist, who testified on behalf of working people and described her daughter as a recent State Board recipient. Bergquist told the committee she has not found any other state that requires more training hours than South Carolina and urged members to "use common sense" and remove the extra apprenticeship mandate so people can enter the workforce sooner.
Bergquist described the statutory layout she was asking the committee to amend: the combination of 1,500 hours of school and an additional apprenticeship component (referenced in testimony as letter C, item 3 of 40‑7‑230) that, together, can require roughly two years and 3,420 hours of training. When the chair asked whether her recommendation was to remove the apprenticeship requirement after either accredited school or on‑the‑job training, Bergquist replied that she supported eliminating the apprenticeship in both pathways.
Committee members questioned what an alternative regime might look like. Bergquist said she did not have a single hours figure to propose beyond restating that she supports removing post‑licensure apprenticeship hours and that successful completion of the State Board should be sufficient to practice.
No formal action was taken at the hearing. The chair said the committee would work with staff, the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (LLR), the Cosmetology Board and the Barber Board to draft amendments using Bill 47‑52 as a vehicle and hoped to reconvene next week to consider proposed changes.
The hearing record includes claims about training-hour comparisons to other states and about the statute the witnesses asked the committee to amend; committee staff said they will follow up with model language and comparative statutory examples.
