Michael is in a class full of girls on the education degree course © SWNSA trainee nanny is to become the first-ever man to pass through the education degree course at the world-famous Norland College.
Student Michael Kenny, 18, is the only male in a classroom full of 48 girls studying on the early years degree course at the Bath college.
He will be put through his paces alongside his female counterparts training to become a nanny - even wearing his own uniform for the role.
Michael claims he was drawn to the job because he has spent time teaching English and Maths to severely disabled children in a Ugandan orphanage.
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"I wanted to work with children because I can understand young people a lot better - I find them a lot easier to get on with,” he said.
"I think I would like to be a nanny for a few years, because it is the whole reason you go through the training.
"But then after that I would like to do a PGCE and become a nursery teacher or work in a prep school."
Michael, who has had to endure lots of jokes from his friends, admitted he initially wasn’t even sure if the college in Bath, Somerset, took on male students.
He was forced to ring the college to check - because he had only ever seen female students around the city.
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Now while his female counterparts wear the classic cream dress and brown hat, he will don a tweed jacket, cream shirt, matching tie and beige trousers for his studies.
Michael, whose parents Simon and Mary, sister Alice, 17, and brother John, 12, live in Uganda, will be only the second male in the college's 120-year history to graduate with the Norland Diploma.
He will be the first to undertake the education degree course.
But now he has started he claims he is undaunted and reckons he had been warmly welcomed by all the girls.
"Funnily enough they have just been caring more about how I have been feeling, making sure I am OK,” said Michael.
Norland College principal Liz Hunt welcomed Michael to the fold and said her students were more in demand than ever before.
She claimed every graduate will have a job offer sourced by the college’s in-house nanny agency so they are ready to start straight after finishing their studies.
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"We always have more job opportunities than we have students, the demand certainly outstrips supply,” said Mrs Hunt.
"The modern-day Norland graduate also goes on to work in a wide range of careers such as management of nurseries or primary school teaching."
Norland College, founded in 1892 by Emily Ward, is a leading provider of childcare training.
It has trained more than 7,000 nannies in 120 years.
