Victoria Seeley, 15, from Shire Green, Sheffield, attends the city’s Firth Park community college most of the week but she is also beginning her second year of a hair and beauty course at Sheffield College.
It’s a vocational course for 14 to 16 year-olds built into the school timetable and several of her classmates have joined her but Victoria isn’t sure they will all see it through to the end.
“I’m determined to complete the course because hair and beauty is all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was six years old,” she said.
“But I can tell some of my friends will start missing classes and eventually stop coming because they are not that interested. That won’t make any difference to me.
“My career adviser suggested I take the course at Sheffield College because I can work towards what I really want to do now rather than wait until I leave school. It gives me a head start.
“I was nervous at first. Everyone was bigger than me, I thought everyone was going to ‘get me’.
“But it wasn’t like that at all. I’m more confident now, I feel more grown up, more responsible for myself.
“College doesn’t make me less interested in school. It makes me work harder to get the exam results I need to take up my place at college when I do leave school.
“If I think there is anything the course should have it’s work placements - in a beauty salon or hairdresser’s to give us proper work experience.”
Esther Leach
