UNISON Ulearn Northern Ireland

I’ve been in UNISON for the past five years and a few years ago did my first Pathways course. I was interested in doing something in the union, but didn’t really know what I would be able to do. I was told that the Pathways would help build my confidence and help me find out more about the union. It was over a weekend, which was great, because we stayed somewhere nice and I met lots of people from other branches.

We did a lot of confidence building exercises, but a lot of it was in small groups, so it wasn’t too scary. Each group had to do a task, so we got together to see what ideas everyone had and then someone from the group had to present the task to the bigger group. I was quite nervous, but everyone took turns and people were very supportive, and it was a lot of fun. It made me realise that everyone is the same as yourself and I became good friends with some of the people I met.

We also learned more about UNISON, how it’s divided into branches and the branches feed into the much wider national organisation. It really gives you a sense of how much support is behind you if you need it, you are not on your own. As a result of going to the Pathways weekends, I’ve attended some of the UNISON conferences and I’m going to do my steward’s training next.

I’d really encourage people to go on the UNISON courses, they are free, you can get expenses if you have to travel and most importantly they are fun.