Michelle has been teaching in the Early Childhood sector for 19 years, working with all age groups between birth to 5 years old. She holds a BEd degree in Foundation Phase Teaching and is currently studying towards BEd Honors in Teacher Training and Professional Development. With her qualifications and experience, she has turned to teacher training, sharing her knowledge and expertise with the teams that work for Earlybird Educare@Work. Offering both an accredited NQF level 4 as well as practical workshops to the teaching team, she is dedicated to providing the best possible environment for learning and development in the preschool years spent at the centres.

She holds the position of Head of Training at Earlybird Educare@Work, which a social enterprise seeking to provide high-quality, centre-based early childhood development services to families across South Africa. We operate two equally high-quality centre-based educare brands which enable us to serve families from multiple market segments:

Earlybird partners with large companies as well as commercial and residential property developers. Our partners provide the space and infrastructure we need to set up and run educare centres for the children of their employees or tenants.

BlueDoor partners (via Earlybird Community NPC) with social housing developers and community-based franchisees to set up and provide ongoing support to our non-profit centres and the families they serve.

We recognise the power our centres have to build cohesion in the communities we serve. The value we place on diversity and inclusion differentiates us. It is evident in our family engagement events, fee structures, multilingual emergent literacy programme, inclusive pedagogy, and educational materials. Our teams are committed to creating early learning environments which foster a positive sense of self in every child who spends time in them.