WELS alumna recognised for services to education

Dr Janice Gorlach, OU alumna, has recently received her MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in a ceremony at Windsor Castle, for her services to education and the positive impact her work has had on children’s lives.

With a background in physics and systems engineering at IBM, a career she loved, Janice made the decision to change career in the early ‘90s following the arrival of her third child. She underwent a PGCE in Mathematics (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) at The Open University and became a teacher.

Janice chose to go into teaching as she was inspired by the teachers from her own secondary school for all the care and education they had given her, and by watching her sister, herself a primary teacher, with her infectious enthusiasm for working with children. Janice loved children and had always been passionate about learning, and as a mother with a young family to care for, the OU’s flexible study model was crucial to her.

Janice said she was “honoured and amazed to receive the award”.

She added: “I can’t quite believe it. Every child is special and unique, full of promise and potential and there is no greater vocation than to help to nurture that potential through an excellent education. I myself have learned from the best, for which I am deeply grateful.”

Janice believes that both her training in IBM and her training with the OU, provided the crucial platform for her career. She commented “the OU provided very sound educational understanding that was both broad and deep. It was based very much on research findings and child development. Importantly, it encouraged learners to engage with a wide range of views and ideas. The support from my mentors was first class.”