Baking and British Sign Language courses booming at Warwickshire college

New courses in baking and British Sign Language (BSL) at Royal Leamington Spa College have proven very popular as the college continues to expand its adult learning offering.

Warwickshire College Group (WCG) has seen a waiting list for both courses since they launched last year.

The courses are set to return for a second year in September and form part of WCG’s programme for adult learners.

Other subjects across the group’s six colleges include creative writing, floristry, art, crafts, bookkeeping, vehicle maintenance, English, maths and many more.

The baking and BSL courses are both led by non-teaching members of staff who have been given the opportunity to pass on their skills to learners.

Jessica Mooney, who works as a marketing officer at WCG, has been leading the three-hour evening baking classes – guiding people through how to make stollen, sweet dough, sourdough, French pastries and Indian breads.

She said: “I’m a self-taught baker, so when the opportunity arose to deliver these courses at the college, it was something I definitely wanted to do.

“We’ve been running the courses once a month on a Thursday evening and we’re looking to expand it again when it returns in September.

“I won Best Food Experience 2021 at the Foodie Awards, and think it’s great that the college is open to offering courses which provide something a little bit different and help adults to develop new skills.”

Meanwhile, Renata Conduit, sensory impaired specialist lead at WCG, is already delivering BSL classes to a second set of students.

Renata started working in the role after studying BSL following a career in research.

She decided to run the course to pass on the benefits she’s seen from learning sign language, and both iterations of the nine-week course have been fully subscribed.

Renata said: “I’d been working in research for 15 years and as part of my redundancy package I was given a small retraining budget.

“I decided to study a BSL evening course and by the second week I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in that area and worked my way up.

“There’s been huge interest in the course since we launched it, which reflects the growing desire from people to learn sign language.

“I think this has been fuelled by TV and popular culture, where sign language is more visible now than ever before.

“I really love delivering this course, passing on my passion for sign language and helping others to learn this important language.”

To find out more, visit wcg.ac.uk/adultlearning