Christopher Lashmar is the star of his college.

When he’s not dreaming of being a firefighter, the 21-year-old is studying for his uniformed public services BTEC.

Christopher, from Manor Park, was recently named learner of the year at Barking and Dagenham College’s annual excellence awards.

He said it was “a big surprise” to walk away with the title.

“It’s a great honour,” he said. “I knew I was collecting an award on behalf of the department, but I didn’t know I was going to be named student of the year – it was a big surprise.

“I have been on the course for three years, so to get the award over thousands of students is a really good feeling.”

Christopher plans to become a firefighter when he leaves college, a dream he has had since visiting his grandad’s fire station as a small boy.

“It’s something I have always wanted to do because I’ve had a lot of firefighters in my family and my granddad was a firefighter in London, so he was a huge motivation to me,” said Christopher.

“He took me to his station when I was a young lad and showed me exactly what it was like and right then I knew it was for me.”