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Lizzi Shaw wanted to be a hairdresser after spending time as a child watching her aunty styling people’s hair. Lizzie loved watching her working. Now the Askam teenager is putting her heart and extra hours into making sure her dream of becoming a qualified hairdresser comes true.

Lizzi is in the second year of a hairdressing course at Furness College and is hoping after that to take up the option of Level 3, which is hair extensions and in-depth cutting.

Furness College was an obvious choice for Lizzie because of its reputation, where she knew she would get a good grounding and a professional qualification. She says: “At the college I can get a well-recognised qualification that means I can work anywhere. Without it you are extremely limited.” The college location is perfect for Lizzie, who did not want to have to travel a long distance for her education, plus she can easily get to it from work.

While completing her course, Lizzie is also a working apprentice at Halo Hair and Beauty Salon in Buccleuch Street, Barrow, where she works under the supervision of trainer, Joanne Grainger, and salon owner, Estelle Beauman. Going over her schedule at college and the salon, it is easy to see why she is making such good progress in her career. Lizzie explains: “I am glad I chose Furness College because I have a good tutor in Jackie Tyson and then receive good training at the salon – it means I get double the training. At the college, the tutors are very good and they understand what salons need from apprentices.”

But Lizzie has also added to her schedule by working extra hours at the college. She says: “I work Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in the salon, and I am in college 9am to 7pm on Mondays. But now on Thursdays I finish work at 5pm in the salon and go to college until 8pm.” Those Thursday evenings in college, Lizzie spends working on the hair of clients to enable tutors to assess her work. She says: “It is my choice because I want to get more assessments completed and work through the course faster. I can do full hair colours, highlights, hair-ups (stylings), which I love, blow drying and I have now started cutting, which I took to really well. The thought of cutting someone’s hair was really scary because once you have made the cut you can’t put it back on, but I really love it now and my trainer thinks it will be my forte.”

Salon owner, Estelle, says her business has benefited from the college apprentices. She says: “The college and salon work really well together. They provide great support for us and know what we want. We interview the apprentices and decide who we want but they send us good candidates.” Lizzie is the second outstanding apprentice the salon has had from the college.

Salon trainer, Joanne, stresses the importance of regular communications between the college and salon. She says: “We have monthly meetings with them and they also come here and check on all the apprentices to make sure both the salon and the girls are happy and working to the standards we expect. It is a very good relationship.”