Hello everyone, I’m Michael Batt, a cochlear implant user of 17 years. I am in my final year of studying Design and Technology for Industry at Manchester Metropolitan University in Cheshire and I felt I had to do some work experience in the summer to make my CV stand out when applying for jobs.

I went to the Cochlear Technology Centre in Belgium. Here is the fourth week of the diary I kept…

Week Four
I presented several ideas to Marcel (my supervisor) and went back to work on the best ideas. I had to think about the assembly of parts and the location of mounting holes. As well as that I reduced the amount of solid needed to make the part to cut costs.

For the weekend I went to Brussels and met up with my parents. They had booked me a room next to them in the Hilton hotel as a present for my 21st. We spent the weekend looking round the centre of the town and we liked the historical buildings. I particularly enjoyed the beer festival as they had a parade of antique beer lorries and vehicles, especially cars, are a passion of mine. I also saw two little brothers playing in the square and one of them had a cochlear implant! I don’t often see cochlear implant users in public and it made my ma and I smile that they are becoming more popular! Dad also impersonated a tourist guide making us laugh all weekend!