You could describe me as an enthusiast for apprenticeships: I’m on my third one and it’s no exaggeration to say they changed my life. I did my level 2 hairdressing straight from school, the level 3 a bit after that and I’m currently working towards a level 5 in operations management. I’m also the apprenticeships manager for hairdressing at Milton Keynes College. 

School wasn’t great for me. The teachers told me they didn’t think I was university material and I had very little careers guidance. When I was 14 years-old I was flicking through Look magazine where I saw an article describing a day in the life of an apprentice at Vidal Sassoon. I’d already told my mum I wanted to be a hairdresser and she had flipped, telling me I wasn’t going to waste my life doing endless shampoos and sets in some dingy backstreet salon. I thought if I got a place with Vidal Sassoon, surely she couldn’t complain? I love Milton Keynes but I wanted to get away from my home town and show my mum how wrong she was. To be fair, she was actually very supportive when she saw there was nothing “backstreet” about where I was working.

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Apprenticeship training with the stars

I started as a Saturday girl earning £10 for the day at Sassoon in London. It doesn’t sound like much and it really wasn’t, as my train fare to London and back was £7.40.  It was tough but they obviously thought enough of me to give me an apprenticeship, which I started once I’d left school. I lived with my Nan in London during the week and went home at weekends. In hairdressing, you’re on your feet all day and my journey included a bus, a Tube and a fairly long walk, so it was exhausting. It was before the Good Friday Agreement so there were constant hold-ups from bomb scares and sometimes that journey seemed endless.

Sassoon took on 20 apprentices in one go but by the end of the two years only four of us had successfully completed our training. The attitude was quite clear - if you can’t cut it, you’re out. The training was second-to-none, though, and I still teach my apprentices many of those techniques that I learned back then that I wouldn’t have been taught anywhere else - it was the Sassoon way.

I worked in a salon in Bond Street in London and we had famous faces coming in all the time. We had Jack Nicholson, Jason Donovan. I remember Julian Clary was lovely and gave me a £10 tip, which in those days was quite a sum. One day Take That were in town and took the whole floor of a big hotel to get ready in advance of the concert. I went along as an assistant, which was a real thrill. It was fantastic training because apprentices spent six to eight weeks with an individual stylist and you could soak up all their skills and knowledge, not just with the scissors but the way they spoke to their clients and everything about their way of working. 

What’s not to like?

Looking back on it, I think the same things that draw people to take up apprenticeships today were the ones that convinced me it was the right path for me. I could earn while I learned, which was a big thing. I liked the mix of practical and theory, which I still believe is one of the best learning methods there is. The work was hard and in those days really long hours were expected of you. It’s tough today but there’s a little bit more respect for employment law than once there was. We didn’t face the endpoint assessment, of course, and as someone who conducts them I know they’re really tough, but they’re really important for maintaining standards.

Today, I’m doing my level 5 to improve my skills running the department - budgeting, people management - all the things you’d expect to need in my current role.  I mean, what’s not to like? I get to do the job I love, to show other people how to do it and hopefully get better at all those other skills around it. If I could go back to my teenage self considering that first apprenticeship, I would just tell her she’s doing the right thing.

Sarah Thompson is the apprenticeships manager for hairdressing at Milton Keynes College and is studying for a level 5 in operations management. She tells her story as part of Tes’ #InspiringApprentices campaign