Amma Donkor completed the Legal Studies certificate of higher education at Birkbeck last year, and has since commenced on the LLB course. She explains how returning to studying after a break has helped with her career as well as enhancing her worldview, confidence and well-being. 

I enrolled on the Certificate in Legal Method course (now known as Legal Studies) in 2016 as I wanted a change from my previous role in TV sales at the BBC. I also figured that it would be a great opportunity to gain useful skills that would complement my new role within the Rights Department at Channel 4. I wasn’t interested in pursuing a Law degree at that time, but little did I know that once I began the course, I would fall in love with the subject and progress even further!

It had taken a good few years to summon the courage to pursue this journey. As a mature student, the prospect of returning to education after many years was a daunting prospect because my previous experience of education had been disappointing. To add to that, only a month after enrolling on the course, my dad passed away suddenly; this was a year after losing my mum back in 2015 so I decided to defer for a year.

However, determined to complete the course, I enrolled again the following year and was offered a place to start in October 2017. Like all Certificate courses, the duration is a year-long and took place over three terms and a few Saturday’s so there were four modules that we studied. There were two options to take the course either on one evening a week or one day a week. As I work full-time, I opted for the evening classes.

There were twelve of us in the class which included a wide mix of people. We are all at various stages of our lives; some straight out of six form college whilst the rest of us were combining full-time work with study. Everyone in the class was friendly and supportive throughout the year and we established a WhatsApp group early in the course, where we shared information and tips to help us through the course.

The course was an introduction to the study of Law and the modules provided an understanding of the foundation of the English legal system, practical skills such as mooting and advocacy and even attending a courtroom, legal reasoning where we learnt how judges used various skills to adjudicate on seminal cases, as well as learning about salient areas of English law such as Human Rights and the European Union. There were eight assignments set throughout the year and we received lots of assistance from our tutor and from the various study skills workshops that were available to assist us with legal writing. The combination of studying in the evening whilst working, although tiring at first, was the only option for me to return to education and so, after a few months, it became like second nature. Very early on in the course it began to dawn on us how prevalent the subject of Law featured in all aspects of society.

I knew that previously, I had been pretty lackadaisical about studying. However, as a mature student I didn’t want to waste such an opportunity again and began to apply myself. As a result, I received good grades in all my assignments.

The teaching on the course was excellent and I personally believe that was the reason why I flourished on the course. Our tutor was also a part-time barrister, so we received a first-hand account of what it was like to practise law and how the legal process works. Her passion and dedication to ensure that we all did well on the course inspired most of us to do just that. My tutor also encouraged me to continue with my education and to enrol on the LLB Law course.

Consequently, I’ve just completed the first year of the LLB Law course here at Birkbeck, University of London. The first year was more demanding than the Certificate course as we studied three modules simultaneously throughout the year which took place over three evenings a week. However, it was encouraging to discover cases or concepts that we had been introduced to in the Certificate course being developed further on the LLB course. And because of this, I was able to keep up with the volume and the pace of study.

I’ve also noticed that concepts such as Human Rights, Constitutionalism and Parliamentary Sovereignty are a lot more plausible when watching or reading the news since returning to education and my confidence and well-being has increased considerably. I’m still not sure whether I want to practise as a solicitor or even a barrister or even at all, but I am looking forward to the year of study ahead and to successfully completing the LLB!