Michela is an adult learner, currently studying a Teaching Assistant Level 2 course and a British Sign Language course at Merton Adult Education. She is also taking some Employability courses to support her career change into education.
Michela says: "I love learning new skills and I enrolled at Merton college to study new topics in the education sector and update my skills. The focus of my learning is to retrain in my career from an architect to a teacher.
As part of the Teaching Assistant course, I'm volunteering in a Steiner school each week. The placement involves providing support to groups of pupils and giving one-to-one maths support to a new pupil. My course tutor Debra has really helped me develop my practical skills and also given me support with research so that I can complete my assignments.
Since last November, I've also been studying British Sign Language (BSL) at Merton because I'd like to be able to use it in schools and with friends. I really enjoy the BSL course because we are taught through communication games and the tutor uses engaging methods to explain lessons, so I have made good progress. The course is both useful and fun - and games are a really good learning tool too!
More recently, I have been taking employability courses because I need to switch the focus of my CV from an architect background to an education based CV. These courses have also taught me how to make better use of social media to search for work in the education sector.
I really like the learning environment at Merton College. I can use the library, I find the facilities to be very clean and all the students respect each other.
My next goals are to improve my maths skills and secure a job in education."
